The Mages of Hogwarts
by TearsofBlack101
Summary: This is the story of Hogwarts at it's finest time, housing some of its finest wizards, and I'm not just talking about the Marauders. I'm talking about Mages!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Nothing that you recognize belongs to me, but rather to JK Rowling.

"James Potter!" someone shrieked, just soon enough to give the boy warning that he should dash behind the nearest statue.

The shriek had come from none other than the lovely Lily Evans, and it was quite clear that she was _not_ happy.

Lily whipped around the side of the statue and stared down disapprovingly at James with her hands on her hips and a furious glare written in her eyes.

"Potter!" she shrieked again, and it was only now that she was closer to him that James realized how loud she really was.

"Yes?" he asked, pulling out an innocent expression.

Unfortunately, Lily had known James for just over five and a half years, and knew how rare an occasion it was that he was actually as innocent as he appeared.

"Don't, 'yes' me!" she said furiously. She almost stomped her foot at how he was always so calm on the outside, even when boiling with anger on the inside. Then, a thought hit her. She regained her composure and began again.

"Oh, Potter?" she asked, using his own tactic of utter serenity against him.

"Yes, Lilikins?" James asked, standing and grinning widely.

Lily's green eyes flared almost red for a moment, reminding James of the holidays, but she managed to continue without a retort at the nickname.

"What did you do to Severus?" Of course, she knew perfectly well that the poor Slytherin had been found in a closet, bound in ropes with a dirty sock stuffed in his mouth, and if she had her way, Potter would hear about it. She was sure that it had been him.

"Why, whatever to you mean?" James asked, clutching his heart and looking utterly shocked.

"Ooh!" Lily exclaimed, forgetting the whole be-nice-to-James tactic, "You know what happened, you toe-rag! You shoved him in a closet and put a …Oh." She finished quietly. James had just lifted his pant legs, revealing both of his feet well covered. The sock couldn't have come from him, because he was still in possession of both of his.

James smiled a little wider, then walked out from behind the statue and put an arm around Lily, "You see what happens when you falsely accuse people, Lilikins?" he asked all-knowingly.

Lily still had not recovered completely from the shock that Potter hadn't been responsible, but got over it quickly when Sirius strolled up behind both of them and said

"Whew, glad I remembered to bring the sock!" just as cheerful as ever.

Lily's eyes went wide, and her jaw dropped slightly, "Why, you!" she screamed at James, who had dropped his arm and begun walking down the long corridor with Sirius at his side.

Then her curiosity got the better of her and soon she was jogging after them. After all, they were all on their way to their Transfiguration lesson.

"What did he do to _you_?" she asked, trying very hard not to sound accusatory.

Sirius glanced back but neither of them stopped. "Why would we even bother telling you." he asked, not really caring if she knew or not. They had attacked Snivellus and there wasn't anything she could do about it.

James was thoroughly over-excited. The three of them were trudging as quickly as they could to their Transfiguration lesson, and while James was astonishing at this particular subject, as well as all others, he had absolutely no interest in anything school-related apart from the hundreds of defenseless prank victims and the building itself. Therefore, his excitement had nothing to do with the subject.

Sirius caught his gaze for a millisecond. Just enough to warn James not to appear too excited when they got there. All of James' effort was put into acting mature and brilliant, not that he wasn't already, but you know fifth years, always convinced they know what they're doing.

"It's really more that he exists at all. He's just a menace to society." James said with a distracted voice. They were coming onto the door of their classroom, and he really wanted to make sure that the substitute was still there.

"James!" Lily exclaimed, forgetting for a moment that they weren't on first name terms.

"Evans." He said, reminding her of their usual conditions, just then the door opened and out stepped the professor that was substituting for Professor McGonagall.

Immediately, Sirius stood up straighter, and James' hand flew to his hair in the hopes that he could make it just a little messier. Lily, who was completely unaffected by their curvy, blonde, half-veela professor, muttered something about the two of them being prats, and pushed past them to get a good seat.

For once, James wanted good seats too, so the front-and-center seat was fought over, Lily having taken it first, and James simply wanting it. In the end James won. All those hours playing Quidditch hadn't been for naught, and he had easily overpowered the girl. He insisted that if she really wanted to sit there, the two of them could share, and he would gladly let her sit in his lap.

Lily threw him a disgusted look and settled for the seat two rows behind him. Then she sat back and brooded. How arrogant, how rude, how… Well, you get the message.

The whole time that this had been going on, Sirius had been talking to the substitute. Lily was embarrassed for her. A boy five years younger than she was hitting on her. Really, it was indecent. A moment later, her embarrassment slid into shock as the substitute flirted back.

"Really, _pigeon, _you should make this your full time job. You do a far better job than old Minnie, and it's far more fun to have you." He said, leaning against the door way and looking up almost an inch to her in his famous Sirius Black wooing gaze.

The girl giggled then flashed him a look that was dangerously close to consideration, then someone pushed between the two of them to get into the class.

"Oh, good. You're finally here," Lily gushed as a rather short young witch walked quickly into the room, her dark brown hair swishing a bit as she did.

Olivia dropped her bag on the floor, and looked at Sirius oddly.

"Olivia! Don't you even tell me that-" That was as far as Lily's reprimands got, because Olivia started waving her hands in her best friend's face, shushing her as best as she could, "We'll talk about this later." Lily said. Then, as if it made any difference, Olivia nodded her head in compliance.

For his seat, James looked at Lily, with his eyes wide. It was as if he'd just seen her for the first time. She was gorgeous! Her auburn hair shimmered almost to her waist, and her brilliant green eyes, though sharp, were enticing and perfect. Her complexion, her mouth, even her nose was perfect. It was that moment that James decided to let her have him.

Sirius had finished speaking with the 'professor' and plopped down next to James, smiling widely. He propped his feet up on the table in front of him and leaned back dangerously in his chair, with his hands behind his head.

"Er, Prongs?" he asked when her saw the look on his mates face. "Prongs?" he asked again.

When this too got no reaction Sirius whipped his head around to follow James' gaze.

"What… Lily?" he asked stupidly, clearly having missed something, but James didn't understand either. How had he spent all of this time with Lily and not even realize how beautiful she was? Even when she was yelling she was beautiful.

Come to think of it, she wasn't overbearing, she was… feisty. And she wasn't impatient, she was… determined, and brilliant, and funny, and, and, and Sirius looked as if something had clicked, and he really wished that it hadn't.

"Prongs!" he exclaimed again. This time he waved his hand in front of the boy's eyes. This got his attention. James turned his head to his best friend, who was staring at him expectantly.

"Uh… what?" James asked, really hoping that Sirius didn't know what James knew he knew.

"Oh…. You wanna talk about it?" Sirius asked wisely, "About… _Lily_?" he whispered the last word and made the word sound positively as important and dramatic as he could.

James met his eyes and resented that he was being made fun of, but said, "I think I…" then he stopped. The girl he was talking about was very close, but Sirius got the point.

Sirius looked as if he couldn't believe his ears when he overheard these musings. James had never been even remotely serious about a girl, and had gladly flirted with and snogged as many as he could get his hands on, which closely rivaled Sirius' count.

Sirius used this count as a constant reminder that for as long as anyone could remember, James Potter had been the number _two_ hottie of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He was a close second to Sirius Black, whose fan club had gone entirely to his head.

The point was that for as long as anyone could remember, the two of them had been able to grab a date to… anything, at the drop of a hat. Sirius had taken it upon himself to snog the whole school.

It was widely acknowledged that any girl would give a limb to date him, or really any of the four Marauders… Well, perhaps not the rat-like boy, Peter. But the three other ones were perfection.

There was Sirius Black, with his shaggy black hair and brilliant blue eyes. Notorious flirt and rumored excellent snogger. Beater for his house Quidditch team

Then there was James Potter.

He was on the Quidditch team, of course. Chaser a few years running. He was amazing at the sport, and as everyone knows, girls just can't get enough of athletes, especially when they had such dreamy hazel eyes and black hair that begged to be combed, but also looked so right messy it was a shame to think of controlling the mop.

Those two had been inseparable since day one at Hogwarts, best friends until the very end.

Then there was Remus Lupin. He was rather perfect himself, though not in the ways the first two were. He had light hair that was just the perfect long length, as were his long blonde eyelashes. His blue eyes were quite a lot darker than Sirius'. He was smart and kind, and always knew what to say.

And who could forget Peter Pettigrew. He was nothing in comparison to the other three. Stupid, rather large, ugly and short with a rat-like nose. He was too stupid to know to what he conformed. His beady little eyes darted around nervously. His stringy hair and vulgar complexion completed his rat-like appearance.

There were a few important things about the Marauders. One was that they were the prank-kings of their day. Rivaled slightly by Fred and George Weasley, who were long after their time, they were under the impression that they were the greatest thing since sliced cheese. And they loved sliced cheese.

Another important thing was about Remus specifically. Remus Lupin was a werewolf. He had been driven out of three towns when the citizens found out, had been thrown out of three schools when similar events occurred, and had been rejected by plenty of others, until finally he found solace with Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts.

Dumbledore was a rather strange old man he was, though not nearly as old as he would become, who believed the best in everyone, and was willing to give Remus a chance at his school.

Remus was no fool. He knew that it was best to keep his secret a secret, and so he did, but he was completely unaware that his dorm-mates had figured it out. He told them that his mum was ill. That he had to rush home for this reason or that, but would really sneak down under the Whomping Willow, through a very long tunnel, and into the Shrieking Shack.

His dorm-mates didn't know what to do for the longest time when suddenly it hit one of them, (certainly not Peter) that werewolves only affected humans, and they were perfectly safe as animals.

This, obviously, wasn't a very well though out plan. Werewolves are still quite viscous, even if they can't turn animals into creatures like themselves. Regardless of the half thought out plan the three boys: James, Sirius and even Peter, had become animagi just recently this year.

James was a large but graceful stag. Sirius a shaggy, black dog (closely resembling the frightening grim) and Peter (what else) a rat.

The four of them had little nicknames for each other, and it was considered a great insult amongst themselves to be called anything but Prongs for James, in honor of his antlers, Moony for Remus, in honor of his lycanthrope trigger, Wormtail for Peter in honor of his nasty little tail, and Patfoot for Sirius in honor of, well, you figure that one out. The point of this whole introduction into the Marauders union was to prove how surprised James was the next morning.

"NO!" Lily shrieked. She seemed to do a lot of that lately, but this time she had a particularly good reason. She was refusing the third date-offer made by James that morning, and they hadn't even gotten to breakfast yet!

Most girls would be swooning by then, and James was certain that if he just worked at it a little harder, she would too. He was a very determined boy. Not at all willing to give up simply because his request was ridiculous and getting annoying.

"Aww, come on, Evans… Please?" he said, throwing on a puppy dog face. He just couldn't live down that someone had said 'no' to the infamous James Potter.

"Potter, that is the fourth time I've told you. NO!" Lily said loudly, though not as loudly as before. This repeat was every bit as menacing.

"Evans-" James started again, but she whipped around and nearly smashed into him, then pointed a finger in his face and said:

"You will sincerely regret asking me again." Then she turned back around and entered the Great Hall where James couldn't ask her in front of so many people.

Unfortunately, the students were in his thoughts as well. She couldn't turn him down in front of the whole school. So he followed her in, alone. His Marauders were waiting at the Gryffindor table already, awaiting his victorious return.

James sped up in front of her, dropped to his knees and begged.

"Come on, Evans. How bad would it be? Please?"

He kept the puppy dog eyes that had coaxed the clothing right off of other girls. Apparently Lily was not weak to his attacks. The expression had no affect on her. She simply ignored it, walked around him and sat down with her friends.

James stood there, staring at her in defeat. The three other Marauders strode up to him quickly, and escorted him back upstairs to Gryffindor tower. Sirius led them.

"What was that?" Sirius demanded. He was not sure if he was angry at Lily for rejecting his friend that early on a Saturday morning, angry at James for not being able to get a date, or if he was just amused at the whole thing.

"What?" James asked miserably.

He threw himself into a large couch by the fire, and hoped that they hadn't noticed what had just happened. Of course, his hopes and mental pleas were ridiculous as the whole school was ranging from whispering to yelling about the incident.

_James Potter_, had been turned down.

Surprisingly it was not Sirius who responded, it was Peter. "Lily ignored him." He exclaimed cheerfully.

Sirius looked at him like he was waiting for the epiphany. Remus muttered to Peter, "If she ignored him this time, what do you think happened before? Did he already ask her?"

James could hear the whole thing and was mortified to hear that even his friends thought he was pitiful.

"OH!" Peter gasped, then continued, "I meant, she must have said she didn't want to before!"

Sirius, though at times you would never know it, could get quite cynical at other times, like this one. "Well, spotted. Think of that one yourself?" he asked harshly.

Remus looked up, "Sirius!" he exclaimed, like a mother protecting her child's ears. Then, the same few words that had been spoken over a thousand times echoed through Sirius' mind. They went something like 'he needs all the encouragement he can get. Be nice.'

Now really, it wasn't that Sirius was mean. He just had trouble putting up with idiots.

"Now, James-" Remus started, but was cut off with a furious glance from both Sirius and the Marauder he had been addressing, sending him the message loud and clear. "All right, _Prongs_. I think you've just got to give her some time-"

"-But don't give up!" Sirius added enthusiastically, back into his usual rather bouncy mood. After all, Marauders don't fail. How many times had he said that? Marauders try as hard as they can. Marauders persevere…

"-Right, but don't go at her too strongly-"

So why was Remus telling him not to persevere? It could only lead to failure. Sirius took it upon himself to contradict the boy.

"-But don't let her forget about you!"

Remus sighed and said "And don't listen to Sirius." He received a hurt look from his friend, and hastily mended his words.

"Er, _Padfoot_. He's never been remotely, well… serious about any of the girls he's been involved with, and any advice he gives you is a load of rubbish. Find out what she's interested in. Take part in those interests. Go to the library. Help her study. Don't ask her again for at least two weeks."

He seemed quite pleased with himself, having laid out a plan that surely would have turned out rather nicely had James, er-, Prongs, not been staring at Lily, who was doing a bit of homework across the room, instead of paying attention to Remus, er- Moony.

"I'm going to go ask her again." James said suddenly.

"'atta boy!" exclaimed Padfoot.

Remus just sighed and leaned his head back on the couch cushion for a moment before continuing his quickly, though exquisitely written homework.

Fortunately for Lily, Olivia had seen James heading in their direction, and had given her friend fair warning. The two girls hurried up to their dorm, which James couldn't reach because of a rather annoying enchanted staircase. James returned to the Marauders corner of the common room, a frown developing on his face.

"So? How'd it go?" Sirius asked with cruelly sarcastic curiosity.

"Shove off," his best mate retorted, then looked sadly and helplessly at Moony.

"Well?" Remus asked, pausing for a moment to scratch his chin with his quill, What did you expect? You were listening to Padfoot!"

Contrary to the expected reaction from his friend, Sirius beamed at being addressed by his preferred nickname. Even the other houses had picked up on the trend. So, though they didn't understand what it meant, they consented in calling the four by their newer names.

Remus was the exception.

He was only referred to as Moony by his close friends… Remus considered the situation for a moment, then a look of epiphany crossed his face. "Padfoot!"

A/N- There you go! I've had this started for a very long time, but never edited any of it. Now that I am reaching chapter fourteen, I thought it best to get you updated just a little.

Tell me what you think!

Dani


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Nothing that you recognize belongs to me

"What?" James asked sharply. Remus had just spent fifteen minutes explaining a rather simple plan, but James was still half-delirious, and Sirius was still… All right, he just didn't want to pay attention.

Remus sighed slightly then said, "Prongs, I've only just finished telling you… All right, let's go through this again. Lily has never minded Padfoot. Not that she fancies him. Actually, she didn't mind you much either. Well, she would've talked to you, at least, until this morning."

James still looked utterly clueless, and Sirius looked as if he would rather kiss the giant squid than attempt to pay attention to all of this again, but Remus continued relentlessly.

"That means that Padfoot can talk to her about what exactly bothers her about Prongs, then he can fix those things and when we all think that the time is right, you can ask her." He finished excitedly.

James' bored expression turned into one of interest, "Would that really work?" he asked quietly.

"Of course it will!" Remus said brightly.

Sirius, however, seemed to have a different opinion, "Um, guys? One problem." The two boys' faces fell. James was a big picture person, and usually relied on Remus to catch flaws. This time, that duty fell on Sirius, as it was Remus who'd thought of it. "She might not mind me as much as Prongsie, but she's not about to spill anything, especially when the information concerns my best mate." He said dully.

James gave him a look that had melted thousands of people hearts, and while it didn't particularly affect Sirius, it was enough to demonstrate to him how serious James was about the whole thing.

"I guess it's worth a try." He said grumpily.

James beamed at him, then stood and said loudly, "Well, I'll just go to bed then!"

Sirius looked as if something had dawned upon him and he said "Uh, yeah. So will I." He said just as loudly, making sure that everyone had heard him.

Remus caught their gaze, sighed and said "Yes, that's a good idea. Bye, Pete."

Peter watched the three of them leave, but stayed where he was. He was determined to figure out a spell that the three other Marauders had mastered weeks ago. It was actually a fairly simple spell, but because it looked a little confusing, Peter had been frightened of it. He was not completely sure if he even wanted to make it work, until earlier today when the James had demonstrated perfectly on Snivellus.

It was a hex that made your 'opponent' hand upside down as though from an invisible rope. It was called _Levicorpus_, and it was growing quickly in popularity. That kept Peter busy for a number of hours. More importantly, it kept him busy while the other three crept past him.

Remus had been made a prefect earlier that year, but he rarely honored his commitment to it and instead followed James and Sirius, displaying their rivaling genius at pranking the Slytherins.

James had been sent his fathers invisibility cloak in their first year, and it was a great help in their pranking ways. The three of them were under it now, as they made their way out of Gryffindor common room.

Every so often, the three of them would traipse off about the castle, mapping it out. Remus often felt badly that Peter was so left out of these activities, but he agreed that the boy should spend the extra time studying.

They were aiming to be cartographers of the school not because the title was so incredibly cool, but to help future prank-doers. The three of them knew every inch of the castle and back again, but it had taken them an incredible amount of time to accomplish it all.

It would be easier for future prank-players to have every room at their fingertips. More accurately, almost every room. There was one room that nobody but themselves ever needed to see. It held anything that you ever needed and they used it frequently, but it was their room. Besides, what kind of genius prankers would they be if they couldn't figure out anything for themselves?

Obviously, the proclamation that they knew every inch of the school was their own. There were secrets in that school that hadn't been seen since it's founders were around. Secrets that weren't about to be revealed.

The three of them just barely fit under the cloak. They hoped that they would have their map before size became too much more of an issue. They could figure out where they people were, and they could avoid them by using back hallways and such.

They had devised a system by going out like this for almost a year and a half. They stepped together and they could communicate without making noise. Every room that they stopped in was drawn and noted of its purpose. Every room, even ones that were so obvious it was stupid to have to write it.

Remus shot Sirius and James the look that meant 'Go, go, go!' as the portrait had just swung open. They rushed to the exit, strides exactly the same, and made it out just before the portrait snapped shut. James nodded his head to the left and the other two followed him. They were headed for the north tower. It was obvious of its purpose, and Sirius in particular spent a good amount of time there, but, as Remus kept reminding them, they had to search everything. Revisit everything. Just to make sure of its accuracy.

Sirius stifled a snort and continued when he saw a pair of seventh years, Molly and Arthur, snogging on the stairs. They passed a few couples in this position and made it to the bottom of the silver ladder that led its way up to the Divination classroom. They had no hope getting up the ladder without being seen. Besides, it was far past curfew. James sighed quietly and blinked three times. The others did the same.

Good. They were all in accord that it was time to turn back. They quietly walked back to Gryffindor tower and stared at the empty painting in front of them. What were they supposed to do now? Then, Remus remembered the room.

The room just to the right of the painting. The room with the passage to their dormitory. He didn't know what he had done to deserve stumbling upon this portrait, but he was very glad that he had.

He jerked his head to their left and the other two boys, without thinking, followed him. It was a few steps before a confused expression crossed both their faces. Remus shook his head and kept walking.

He pulled out his wand and carefully slipped it out of the cloak. He tapped the wall and a door appeared. Remus pushed it open gratefully and stepped inside. The whole thing was full of portraits. Luckily, Remus knew which one to go through. It was a floor length painting of a horse standing next to a cow. He pulled off the cloak and waited for his friends' confused expressions to turn to happiness.

"What is this?" James demanded happily.

Remus smiled, and turned to the painting. He tapped it with his wand. The painting swung open and the only thing to do was walk through. James and Sirius followed him in a daze. It was a long, dark, empty walk to their dormitory. Finally, there was a spot of light ahead of them.

Remus winked his left eye, then his right, implying that the others should shut their fat mouths for a minute. He peered through a small grate in front of him and saw that the room was empty. Remus smiled widely and tapped the wall in front of him with his wand. The wall creaked open slowly. Sirius beamed at him.

"A true Marauder, Moony," he said quietly, then he walked past his friends and threw himself into his bed. The strange thing was that his bed was right in front of the wall that had just opened. It had pushed forward when the wall did, and a moment later, it pulled Sirius back as the wall slid into place.

Remus smiled, "We may just have to wander this whole school tapping walls with our wands to find all of its secrets," he admitted.

"I don't want to find all of its secrets," James said slowly, "It would make it so much less mysterious, and I don't think I'm ready for a boring Hogwarts,"

"Then Moony and I will just leave you out." James looked hurt, "Oh? So you _do_ want to be in the loop?" Sirius asked with mock-chastisement.

Remus yawned and shuffled to his bed. He fell into it gracefully and immediately was asleep. James and Sirius tried to sleep, but it wouldn't work. Instead, they discussed Lily.

"You can't do this, Prongs. She doesn't like you. Find someone else."

"But… I can't forget her," James said quietly.

"Don't then, just go with other girls and pretend they're her," Sirius said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Padfoot!" James laughed, "That's terrible!"

"Probably," Sirius smiled. Frankly, he hadn't met anybody yet who made him see girls as more than objects.

"You're right though. I'll find someone else and make it look like I don't like Lily like that."

"Of course. My plans never fail," Sirius said broadly.

"Yes they do." James reminded him, "Or don't you remember a certain business venture in third year when-"

"No!" Sirius exclaimed.

"You ended up with a pile of dung to sell to nobody," James added

"Stop! I can't hear it again!" Sirius wailed.

"And you were completely covered, and not one girl would go near you for a month!" James finished happily.

"Aw, Prongslet, you make it sound like you stayed away too," Sirius laughed.

"Go to sleep, Padfoot," James said sleepily from his bed.

"Come on. Don't you want to talk about who you're going to go with now?"

"Sleep."

"PRONGS!" Sirius wailed miserably, but James was not alarmed. Sirius was one of those people who just couldn't get the message when you had to leave or sleep, so this was a fairly frequent conversation.

"Bed," James replied, nearly snoring.

"Kitchens?"

"Sleep,"

"Ice cream?"

"pillows,"

"Marauding?"

"Okay,"

"Really?"

"No,"

"You're no fun anymore,"

"I never was,"

"Prongs…"

"Sleep! Now!" James barked.

Sirius smiled to himself. He managed to irritate James almost daily. He was rather proud of it.

"You didn't have to snap,"

James almost laughed, but he stifled it and didn't let himself encourage his best friend. He was finally going to go to sleep.

"Prongs?"

"What?" James moaned.

"I had a nightmare,"

James snorted, "We haven't done this for awhile,"

"I had a nightmare," Sirius repeated, un-fazed.

James sighed, "What was it about?' he asked reluctantly.

Sirius smiled, he always got his way, "About how hungry I am. You were laughing at me and a giant hamburger was chasing me,"

"Let's get this over with. You're hungry and you want a hamburger and you were thinking about me and how much I get to eat and have at my house when you get squat." James explained, as he always did.

Sirius smiled, "Thanks, mate," he said quietly.

"You got it," James reassured.

They had been performing that ritual almost every night since first year. Sirius claimed that it helped him get to sleep. Sirius would proclaim that he had a freaky dream and James would analyze it.

Eventually, it turned away from Sirius actually having scary dreams. He claimed now that he no longer dreamt of anything. Instead, he made something up for James to play with.

Actually, it helped James too. He always slept better when he was thinking about other people's problems, and Prongs was always willing to help Padfoot, especially if it made him shut up and go to sleep.

They actually got to sleep after that. Remus had finally learned to tune the whole thing out, and hadn't even heard it. Peter fell asleep in the Common Room and nobody was awake enough to go get him.

He woke late the next morning, left out again, as everyone had already gone to breakfast and hadn't bothered to wake him. He stumbled into the Great Hall to find his friends, and happened upon them sitting at the Gryffindor table, talking to two very pretty girls. He sat down next to Remus and looked over at James.

"Who are you?" the blonde one asked rudely. She had very light blue eyes, pale skin and shining, almost white hair.

"I'm Peter," he replied nervously.

The brunette laughed. She had dark brown hair and almost black hair, but it was red too. It was an interesting combination. She was as pale as the other, but she had bunch of cute freckles splattered all over her to soften the blow. James was looking at the blonde one and Sirius seemed very interested in the brunette.

"Sara," Sirius said quietly. The brunette looked over at him with a huge smile on her face. She was a Gryffindor fourth year, and she couldn't help but flirt with every remotely cute boy that crossed her path. "Why don't we take a walk?"

Sara smiled and glanced at him through her eyelashes, "Great idea," she said quietly, and the two of them walked off to find some place more private.

James stared for just one more moment before saying, "Liz, we should go somewhere more interesting."

Liz smiled and happily followed him out of the Great Hall.

James knew the deal, he would meet up with Sirius in no less than an hour to discuss the gory details. They had been doing this a long time.

Sirius and Sara stumbled into the Gryffindor Common Room a bit later to find James and Liz cuddling on a couch by the fireplace. James had his arm around her and she was resting her head on his shoulder. It was a good sign for their evening.

Sirius and Sara plopped into a chair across from their friends, Sara on Sirius' lap. James raised his eyebrow, but stuck to their agreement. they wouldn't say anything about the girls until they got up to the dormitory.

"So, Liz, you're a Gryffindor?" Sirius asked comfortably.

Liz gave him a 'duh' look, "Yes," she said rudely. Sirius almost smiled. He liked sarcastic girls.

James smiled. She was his. Sirius couldn't take her tonight. "And you are too, Sara?" he asked nicely.

"Would I be here if I wasn't?" Sara asked. Sirius beamed. Score five for her! He loved sarcastic girls. He almost felt bad for keeping score, but he knew that if he didn't, nobody would. That seemed to be his logic for a few things.

James smiled at Sirius' elated expression and tried to give the girl in his friend's lap more chances to snap at him. "Well, I wouldn't know, would I?" he asked.

"I guess not," Sara said, "Hardly your fault," score six, she was still nice to his friends.

"No, it's not," James said, noting how Sirius' eyes were shining.

"Well, I should probably go find some homework," Liz said, standing and staring at her friend, "Sara?" she asked, not really an invitation as much as an order.

Sara smiled, "All right, but I'm not doing anything. Bye, Sirius," she said, she kissed his cheek and climbed off of his lap.

James nodded at Sirius, who rose and followed him to their dormitory. Sirius immediately turned on James.

"How did it go?" he asked excitedly.

"Well, she's not Lily, but I think she'll serve her purpose. I don't really have to ask, but how was Sara?" James asked, smiling amusedly at his friend's shining face.

"Amazing! She's sarcastic and sassy, but she doesn't over-step it. And she has a mind of her own. If she didn't she would have followed Liz like Olivia follows Lily. Oh, and she's an excellent-" Sirius stopped, noting James' pained expression. "You didn't snog her?" he asked incredulously.

"No… Didn't get a single kiss." James said sadly.

"Well, be fair. You only just met her today," Sirius said.

"You only just met Sara today," James pointed out.

"But I've seen her around. Who could miss her. Besides, she was just more willing than Liz." Sirius said.

"Apparently _I_ could miss her…" James said quietly.

"Good," Sirius said happily. He was still thinking about Sara. He flopped into his bed and daydreamed until he heard James get into bed too. "Prongs…" Sirius began, "I had a nightmare."

"Oh?" James asked, not remotely interested.

"Yeah. Sara and I were snogging then you walked in on us and freaked out," Sirius said happily.

James sighed, "You're still excited about her, and you're worried I won't like her. But don't worry. I do. I'm happy for you,"

"Thanks, mate… but… I had another nightmare. Moony ran away and Wormtail turned into a giant bull-dozer and ran over him," Sirius said, laughing at the mental image.

"Well…" James said, trying to think of something to say, "Moony isn't here and you're worried about him. As for the Wormtail part, I think you're mad." Sirius laughed and rolled over, instantly asleep.

It took James awhile longer. Where was Moony? He assumed that Remus was fine. He always was. James couldn't think of…

…Oh… God…

"Padfoot! Get up!" he roared, tearing out of bed.

Sirius did not wake easily. James yanked him out of his bed to the cold stone floor. "Ouch! Prongs, what gives?"

"Outside!" James ordered, "It's…. that time of the month,"

"Bad metaphor, but… Oh," Sirius said and ran out the door with him.

They hadn't ever had issues getting to the Shrieking Shack during the full moon before, but tonight Remus hadn't said anything about it and they had just… let it slip.

They dashed to the Whomping Willow unsighted and carefully dodged its swinging branches. It was a practiced art that they had perfected those weeks earlier in the year when Peter had gotten very sick and hadn't been able to slip between the branches for them.

James prodded the knot in the bottom of the tree and wished that the opening would appear faster. He got hit in the back by a flailing branch, and then he threw himself into the tunnel. He could hear Sirius thump in after him, and together they hurtled to the Shrieking Shack.

The tunnel leveled out and they immediately transformed into their Animagus forms, enjoying the warm prickle that went down their bodies as they did. They thundered up the stairs to the room that Remus normally transformed.

There was a fat rat in the corner of the room, looking terrified as a large werewolf towered over him. Sirius barked loudly and jumped in front of Remus.

Moony, realizing that he wasn't going to get anywhere with the rat, turned his attention to the dog. He snarled and Sirius growled back. Remus' right eye twitched and he looked at the familiar dog happily.

Sirius lowered his head a fraction, then it came back up. Remus did the same, the signal that Remus was in control of his actions now, not the wolf.

Happily, they trotted over to the opening in the room and wrestled playfully. James generally stayed out of their initial interactions, but was right there if Sirius needed him. He walked over to the rodent in the corner and tilted his head to the right.

Slowly, Peter came out of the corner and settled near James beside the wrestling canines. James got bored watching and jumped up to join in. Sirius bowed to Remus and trotted over to Peter. James blocked an attempt to barrel into him with his antlers, then prodded the werewolf with his hoof.

All at once, he knew that Remus was gone. The werewolf snarled and jumped at James viciously, Sirius leapt to his feet and hurtled to the two of them. James had Remus pinned on the floor before he got there and Sirius resigned himself to standing beside the stag, looked down menacingly at the werewolf.

Remus relaxed and James let him go carefully.

James and Sirius had an unspoken rule that no matter how badly Remus hurt them, they wouldn't retaliate in anger. It wouldn't do any good.

As a result, James now sported a large gash on his front leg, which would be his right arm when he was human, and about six claw-slashes across his chest.

Sirius glanced at him sympathetically, then turned to Remus. He lowered his head a fraction, then returned it, waiting for Remus to do the same.

It took a long time, and Sirius was worried that he would have to pin the werewolf, then it came. Their signal.

Sirius made a quiet, puppy noise and jumped on top of the werewolf, knocking him harmlessly on the floor. The werewolf almost laughed, then rolled over and pinned Sirius to the ground. That just wouldn't do. Sirius kicked Remus over his head and got to his feet quickly. They wrestled on and off until the sun rose and Remus turned back into a very exhausted human Remus.

"What kept you?" he asked.

"You almost ate me!" Peter exclaimed indignantly, turning human the instant that he saw Remus.

"Sorry," Remus said insincerely, "It wasn't those girls,"

Sirius stared at Remus and James said, "Moony, mate, we're sorry. We forgot. It'll never happen again. It had nothing to do with the girls." He lied.

Well, the girls part was a lie. It was their fault that they had forgotten, but neither of them cared much. They managed to get there before Peter was eaten, hadn't they?

Remus sighed, "Come on," he said heavily. He knew that it wasn't their burden to bear, "I'm just glad I didn't eat Peter. Sorry, Wormtail," Sirius laughed out loud.

"We all are," Sirius agreed.

They walked slowly to the castle. This year, Remus was allowed to go to and from the Shrieking Shack by himself, if he could manage. They went their opposite ways after they entered. Remus went to the Hospital Wing and the other boys went to their dormitory.

It was a Monday and they had no more than an hour to get to breakfast. They couldn't sleep in after their full-moon adventures. Too many suspicions could arise, and they couldn't ask the school nurse for help with their wounds for the same reason.

They usually didn't want to ask for help, anyway. Sirius and James were the only ones who actually got hurt, and they preferred to think of the wounds more like battle scars. They wore them proudly.

They got to breakfast sleepily half an hour later, and ate something hastily, then they set off for their days lessons. When they returned to the Common Room to dump their bags before dinner, they were surprised to see Remus. Usually he stayed in the Hospital Wing until the day after the full moon.

"Moony!" Sirius exclaimed, "You've joined the land of the living!"

Remus smiled wryly, "Got let out early," he said quietly, choosing his words as carefully as the others did so that nobody would guess where he had been all day.

He waited for them to stash their things, then he sleepily said "Dinner," Sirius got excited then. He and James both ate at least twice what the normal person eats, and he were hungry constantly.

"Beat you there!" he said happily, then he dashed out of the room for the great hall, resisting his early impulse to turn into a dog. James was right on his 'tail' and soon they were neck and neck, Remus was a foot behind them and Peter didn't even try anymore. Sirius laughed happily as he reached the great hall first. He slapped the door,

"Haha!" he exclaimed.

"All right, you win." James said through a large smile.

"You owe me a knut," Sirius reminded him.

"I know, I know," James moaned miserably. This was another of their of their rules. First runner up owed the winner money. The three of them laughed and burst into the Great Hall.

They plopped down at Gryffindors table and were soon joined by Sara. She felt odd, she hadn't flirted with anyone all day. She assumed that it had something to do with Sirius, and she sought him out when she entered the Hall.

"Oh, hey," Sirius said happily when she sat down beside him.

"Hi," she said grandly. She glanced at his plate and laughed, "Should've guessed." She muttered to him.

"Guessed what?" Sirius asked, smiling widely.

"You eat like a dump trunk," Sara exclaimed.

Sirius smiled, "Glad you've seen my dark side, Doll,"

Sara smiled, "If that's your dark side, I think you're in for a surprise with me," she said quietly.

"Oh?" Sirius asked, oblivious to his friends attempts to ignore their conversation.

"Yeah," she kissed his cheek and walked off to sit with Liz. Sirius watched her go, with an odd feeling bubbling in his stomach. He pushed it off as his hunger and stuffed himself thoroughly. James smiled and Remus stared.

"Padfoot," he said, "We need to talk."

"Ohmygosh! You're pregnant!" Sirius exclaimed, faking shock.

"Yes." Remus laughed sarcastically, "For real though. In the dormitory. Right now."

Sirius frowned and grabbed a piece of bread before following James and Remus out the door. They passed Peter on the way, still walking to the Great Hall. They let him catch up later. much, much later.

"All right," Remus said, settling into his bed comfortably and watching James and Sirius do the same. "What is Sara all about?" he asked.

Sirius smiled, "What are you talking about?" he asked almost dreamily.

James smiled, "Who is she?"

"I don't know," Sirius admitted, "I've only known her for a day, but I want to know more,"

Remus raised an eyebrow skeptically, "You do?" he asked.

James laughed, "She's more than a snogging buddy?" he asked incredulously.

"Ah… I think so," Sirius said, thinking heavily. Was she? Yes. But that was strange. He had never even considered a girl as more than an object before. That sounded cruel, but it was the truth. This one was different though. He wanted to be more to her and hoped that she felt the same way.

"You think so?" James asked sarcastically.

"Yes." Sirius said, "Why do you care?"

Remus smiled to himself. "Just… curious, I guess. This is sort of new, isn't it? Usually you want to use them and abuse them then set them free. Normally she'd be gone by now."

"I don't usually see people in Gryffindor. It makes things too awkward, but… I think I'll make an exception." Sirius said thoughtfully, "Now, if you will all excuse me." He hopped off his bed and went to the Common Room, where he knew that Sara would be.

He was not disappointed.

There was a head of black and red hair sticking over a couch. Unfortunately, there was a red head on one side of her that looked like a boy that she hung around, but Sirius could tell that there wasn't anything going on between those two. He crossed over to it and leapt over the back of the couch to land on the other side next to her.

"Hey, beautiful," he said softly. Sara smiled. The other boy ignored them to the best of his ability.

"Hi," she said, then returned to the book in her lap.

"Homework?" Sirius said, sounding pained.

"Nope," Sara said happily, "Just… something."

"Well… if it's not homework, then you are reading for the hell of it. That's not okay. You must be sick," Sirius said, reconsidering his fascination with her.

"Nope, I'm not sick." She said contentedly. Sirius again reconsidered. His fascination with a girl who read on her own time was fading, "I just hope I look as good as this girl thinks I do," Sirius looked confused.

Sara flipped the cover over to he could see. It was a diary… She had someone's diary! His fascination was back and in full swing.

"Oh really?" Sirius asked softly, "And what does she think?"

"Oh, nothing," Sara said, smiling widely, "Just that my hair is gorgeous and she wishes she had eyes like mine. Oh, and a few other, ahem, unfriendly comments,"

"Oh?" Sirius asked.

"Yep. Come on, though. You can't really be interested," Sara asked softly. The red haired boy moved silently to the other side of the Common Room.

"I am," Sirius said with a grin.

"But… I may be interested in… something else," Sara said seductively.

"Why, Sara… what 's your last name?" Sirius asked, completely distracted.

Sara sighed, "Bulargo." She said impatiently, "But don't hold it against me,"

"Wait…" Sirius said distractedly, "My name is Sirius Black, and yours is Sara Bulargo… we have the same initials… please tell me your middle name's not Orion,"

Sara laughed, "Your initials are S.O.B.???" Sirius smiled painfully, "Sorry, but at least your middle's interesting."

"You still haven't told me what yours is,"

"You can't really be interested in all of that," Sara said, looking at him seductively through her eyelashes.

Sirius smiled, "I expect to know later," he said before kissing her deeply.

Sara returned the kiss enthusiastically and soon they needed to excuse themselves to a room where the whole house wasn't watching them. They found an empty classroom and continued.

An hour or two later, Sara glanced at the clock on the wall, "Shit," she exclaimed. "I've got to go,"

Sirius looked at her, bewildered.

She gave him a look and ran her fingers through her hair a few times. It fell perfectly into place.

"Do you trust me?" she asked with a tiny smile. Sirius nodded his head and she pointed her wand at his head.

"Shit!" he exclaimed and pulled out his own wand.

"You prat," Sara said affectionately.

She waved her wand lazily and his hair fell into place perfectly, removing any trace of what they had been doing. Sirius didn't have time to react before she kissed him one more time and sped out of the room.

Sirius raised a hand to his hair and almost pushed it out of his face when he remembered who had put it there. Sara liked it that way. It should stay that way.

He looked at a mirror that was hanging on the wall and decided that she knew what she was doing. His hair looked great.

What was with this girl? She was amazing and then she was gone. He wandered back to his dormitory and went to sleep without any assistance from James.

A/N- Why Sara doesn't like her middle name will be revealed…eventually. Have faith, it'll come before too long.

Kisses and Cupcakes (But only if you review)

DANI


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Nothing that you recognize belongs to me

Sirius went nearly a week of that treatment. He enjoyed Sara when he had her, and missed her when she was gone. Only after that week did he begin to worry.

Why was she always in such a rush?

What was wrong with her?

He saw her in the common room, stretched out on a large couch and he grabbed her hand. She squeezed back happily and said "Hi," She stood without another word and they walked to a deserted room.

"Sara, I really need to ask you something," Sirius said nervously, "Where are you always going?"

Sara laughed, "What are you talking about? I'm here, aren't I?" she asked sarcastically.

Sirius smiled in spite of the situation. "But you'll rush off in a bit," he pointed out.

"Not everyone has all night, so maybe we should get started." Sara said, slipping her arms around his neck. He wrapped his arms around her waist.

"You haven't told me your middle name either," he said unhappily, finally remembering.

"It's ugly and I don't like it. So what if I don't want to tell you?" Sara said defensively. Sirius raised an eyebrow.

"But I want to know."

"But I don't want you to know,"

"Come on, how bad can it be?"

"That bad,"

"Tell me,"

"Hell no!" Sara said, stepping back from him. he stared at her, slightly hurt.

"Then tell me where you go!" he exclaimed.

"It's not important!" she shouted.

"Yes it is!" Sirius practically yelled.

Sara glared into his eyes and he had to admit, it was scary, but she was beautiful anyway. Every hair was in place and her tensed muscles somehow looked right. Her chocolate brown eyes that could be so warm and inviting at times now looked nearly black and they drilled into his until Sirius lowered his gaze.

"Fine." He said. Woah, that was new. Since when did he give up? "Fine, I don't deserve to know." He really wanted to know where she kept running off to, though.

Fortunately, this was the right thing to say, "You deserve to know, I just can't tell you!" Sara exclaimed. Every trace of anger was gone. Sirius closed the distance between them and wrapped his arms around her.

"I get it. You can't tell me. Wish you would though," he said sadly. Sara nodded slowly.

"If I ever can, I will," she promised. Sirius nodded and kissed her. Sara wished that she could tell him. She really, really did… but he couldn't know. Nobody could know.

They left the room almost an hour later and wandered the school, it was still before curfew, and so they were free to. What they were not allowed to do is snog in the Great Hall, which they ended up doing.

After being snapped at by McGonagall, they were practically shoved out of the hall and made to wander them again. So they did. They wandered back up to the Common Room and said goodnight with one more kiss. They parted ways after that, and Sirius met the guys.

"All right." he said happily, "We don't have homework, do we?" he asked.

"You're… You're serious?" James asked uncertainly.

"Ah, yes," Sirius said obviously, not sure if he was talking about the pun or the adjective, "So do we?"

"Not really. An essay for Slughorn, but that can't take too long," James answered him.

Remus added one more thing, "And we've go to explain everything that we've learned about werewolves for Defense."

Sirius shot him a sympathetic look, then sat down on his bed and started his essay. It would certainly take longer than the Defense bit, which he would need to talk to the guys about to make sure that he didn't know too much. He was done before long, and so could join in the conversation.

"As the snout bit too much?" Sirius asked. They shook their heads, "And the fur?"

"I don't think so," Remus said

"All right… What about how deep they scratch?" Sirius asked rather stupidly.

"I'd say that's a bit too much." Remus said obviously. "Just reread the chapter and write down everything it says. Absolutely no more. Less if you must,"

Sirius nodded and followed his instructions. The chapter actually wasn't very informative so he was done very quickly.

"There," he said with a final air. "Hey, Prongs?" He wasn't sure if he should tell him about what had happened with Sara.

"Yeah?" James asked, in bed and waiting for the nightmare process.

"I don't know what I'm going to do." Sirius said sadly, still not sure if he should tell his friend.

"Did you have a nightmare?" James asked, trying to lead the conversation that direction.

Sirius paused. James didn't need to know everything, "Yes. Uh… A giant pancake was rolling through Hogwarts getting bigger and bigger and picking up everybody on the way. He picked up a rat, two dogs and a deer."

James smiled, "You had to make it so easy? You're hungry, you want it to snow and you like your friends. And that's stag!" He said, assuming that the two dogs were Sirius and Remus. That would make him the 'deer'.

"No, I don't think so… Snow?" Sirius asked, confused.

"Yeah. It got bigger like a snowball?"

"Uh… Whatever you say, Prongslett, but that friends bit was off. The other dog wasn't Remus," Sirius said, his voice slightly troubled.

James smiled, "Then you have an overactive imagination and it ran away with you." Sirius laughed at himself. It was just a stupid game. So what if he could actually see the pancake picking up a reddish/black dog. He finished off the ritual the same way that he always did.

"Thanks, mate,"

"You got it,"

Somehow, both of them managed to get to sleep immediately after that. Sirius managed to leave Sara's secrets alone and move on with her. Their relationship was open but neither saw anybody else. It was almost March when Sirius thought about it again.

He found her in the library, looking thoroughly disgusted. He sat down next to her and kissed her cheek. "What are you working on?" he asked.

She slammed the book she was reading upside down and said "Homework," a little too hastily.

Sirius raised an eyebrow and picked up the book. He flipped it around to see the title but before he could read it Sara snatched it from him and sat on it.

"Really, Sirius. It's not a big thing."

Sirius nodded slowly. "There are a lot of those, aren't there?" he asked sarcastically.

Sara's eyes flashed dangerously, and Sirius knew that he should leave it alone, but he couldn't help it.

"Yes, there are," Sara snapped.

"And you can't tell me any of them," Sirius said unhappily.

"I've already told you, I can't." Sara said almost tiredly. This from the girl who was always a ball of energy, the girl who never got tired.

"Look, I've only known you for what? A month or two? So what if I don't want to tell you everything!" she exclaimed, earning a dirty glare from Madame Pince, the librarian. Sara glared back at her so well that the librarian backed off, respecting her evil gaze.

"Do we have to do this?" she asked earnestly.

"I think we do," Sirius said sadly.

"Fine." Sara snapped. Then she grabbed his hand and her bag and stalked out of the library, to a deserted classroom. "All right. What do you want?"

Sirius had a tiny smile on his face, "I want to know what you won't tell me. Or at least _why_ you won't tell me." He asked.

He felt nag-y and he hated it, but there was nothing he could do about it. He wanted this to go further and he wanted to know her, all of her. He even wanted to tell her about all of him.

Sara glared at the wall to his right, "I can't tell you because…I just… You wouldn't…" her eyes snapped back to his, "I just can't. It's not a normal thing and I just can't." she said sadly. She wanted to tell him. It wasn't fair to him not to know. What was she thinking? They weren't even exclusive.

Sirius sighed, "I get it. Really, I do. And there are some things that I can't tell you." That one killed him, he wanted to tell her so badly, "But I don't know how this is going to work if we aren't honest."

Sara's eyes turned cold. "What are you saying?" she asked.

"I don't know! I don't want this to end! I need to talk to you, Sara… I need to tell you something, but it…It concerns other people. I need to talk to them first." Sirius said, trying not to imply his secrets.

"Ok," Sara said.

"How can you do that?" Sirius asked angrily. Sara gave him a confused look, "How can you just accept that I can't tell you something?"

"It's not that hard, Sirius. I understand that you can't let everyone know everything about you. I want to tell you more, but I… I don't think I should," Sara said.

"And that's okay," Sirius agreed, surprised that he could say it honestly.

Sara closed the distance between them and kissed him.

"Thank you," she said quietly. Sirius nodded and kissed her, then said that he had to go, and he strode off to find the guys.

He liked that they were always in the same place. It was very useful. They were, once again, in their dormitory, talking about nothing.

"Hey, guys. I really want to tell Sara everything." Sirius said happily.

"Huh?" James and Peter asked. Remus looked alarmed.

"I don't even have to tell her about you, Moony, but I want to tell her. I could just say that I'm an Animagus for the hell of it. It doesn't have to have anything to do with you." Sirius said happily, he had it all planned out.

"She'll want to know why," Remus pointed out darkly.

"I'll tell her I can't tell her," Sirius answered simply.

Remus shook his head, "You haven't known her that long. How do you know she won't turn you in?"

Sirius looked hurt, "She wouldn't,"

Remus sighed, "If you really, honestly think that you can trust her, I want you to wait two months and see if you feel the same way. Then you can tell her everything if it's all right with Wormtail and Prongs," Sirius beamed.

"You won't regret it, Moony. So, what do you lot say?" Sirius asked, daring them to defy him.

James smiled, "I think it's great. Of course you can tell her, if you think she'll understand," Sirius beamed a little wider.

Peter looked a little dumb-founded, but then again, he very close to always did. "Sure," he said vacantly.

Sirius was on top of the world. He didn't care if she told him what was wrong with her. Obviously, he was concerned, but that was her business and she didn't have to share it. He wanted her to know everything about him, and now he could tell her.

The next month was difficult. Very, very difficult. There were so many times when Sirius almost told her everything, but he couldn't do that to Remus. He waited his two months while James dated on and off with Liz, then finally it was May, and he finally was allowed to tell her.

"Are you sure?" Remus asked for the thousandth time.

"Positive. Are you?" Sirius asked

"If you think she can handle it." Remus said uncertainly.

"No you aren't," Sirius informed him

"But you are."

"It's not my secret to tell if you don't want me to."

"I'm just… a little nervous. You haven't known her very long, but that was my argument last time. You three are the only people our age who know. What if she doesn't… No. It's fine. Good luck," Remus said finally.

Sirius nodded and grinned nervously, then he turned down the stairs to the Common Room. Sara, as promised, was waiting for him by the portrait.

Sirius strode over and grabbed her hand. He kissed her cheek and they left the Common Room together. They both looked completely happy with each other.

Sirius led her to the Room of Requirement. He walked back and forth three times. The door appeared, and he waited for her surprised expression. She looked happy but not particularly surprised.

He gave that point to her. Anybody who got any respect in his book had better know some of the castles secrets. He was sort of proud of her for finding this one. He took her hand again and opened the door slowly.

The inside of the room was perfect and just as he had imagined it. There was a large red, comfortable looking couch and a romantic table with a vase of roses on one side. He took her other hand and a deep breath, then he began.

"Sara, I really want you to know me. I want you to know my secrets." Sirius said nervously. Sara's smile had faded almost completely, but he wasn't nervous about that. That was just the way that she was. She smiled so easily, but it was gone just as fast. "And I really want you to be able to hear it all. Uh… are you?" he asked uncertainly.

Sara shot him a look, "Of course I am, but I hope you don't think that I'm going to tell you anything just because you tell me everything." She said dangerously.

"I don't care what you tell me. I want you to know me." Sirius said defiantly. "Okay, first things first. All of this is a secret and you really can't tell anyone." He gave her an apologetic glance, "Just… to make things clear. All right. Uh… I am an Animagus." He said. The plan was that if she didn't ask why, he wouldn't tell her.

Sara's eyes grew wide, "You what?" she asked breathlessly.

"I'm… an Animagus." Sirius said again. It was the first time that he had actually ever said it out loud. It felt weird!

"Um… hmm. What's your form?" Sara asked. Sirius was surprised. She seemed to be taking it rather well.

Sirius smiled, "I'm a dirty, dirty dog," he said mischievously.

Sara laughed, "I should've guessed,"

"Yes you should've," Sirius said with a laugh that implied a lot.

"Um… can I see?" she asked nervously.

Sirius smiled and felt the familiar warm tickle run through him. He wagged his tail and looked up at her happily.

"Like the view?" Sara asked with a laugh.

He barked and his tongue hung out of his mouth, then he changed back.

"So… what do you think?" Sirius asked happily. He was so glad that she hadn't run from the room, not that he really thought she would.

"It's freaking brilliant!" Sara exclaimed happily. She leaned forward and kissed him soundly. "But you're much more fun as a human."

Sirius laughed, "Come on, I don't even have a tail!"

Sara looked like she was thinking very hard, "Sirius… I set a timeline. If I still liked you in two months and… if I still wanted to tell you, then I would." She said with a bit of difficulty.

Sirius nodded slowly.

"And I want to tell you something."

Sirius felt a bubble of excitement in his stomach. Was she going to tell him?

"I am too,"

She felt her eyes begin to sting. The secret that she had worked so hard to keep was gone now. What did that mean? What did he mean?

She knew that she liked him and maybe even… No. She wouldn't let herself finish that thought, it was ridiculous. She had no reason to think it, let alone say it. He certainly didn't feel the same way, and they weren't even officially… stop that.

Sirius was staring at her. "Does that mean…"

Sara smiled nervously and took a shaky breath, then she felt that still very new tickling sensation near her head and she looked sheepishly up at Sirius. He laughed hard and loud. Sara barked indignantly.

She was a gorgeous almost black dog. She was strong and elegant and her fur was soft and silky. It was just like her hair. In the right light it was positively black, and in another light it was red. It was a combination that she adored.

"I'm sorry!" he exclaimed, "It's just…" He changed into a dog and leapt onto her.

She fell over with a sigh, then she realized what had happened. She shot him a playful look and toppled over him. They rolled over again and again.

Sara was smaller than him in dog and human form, but she was still very strong in both though you'd never guess it. He liked that about her, too. It was like her whole being was a surprise.

He barked happily and his tail waved and wagged like mad. Sara suddenly growled and Sirius looked up in alarm, he was caught off guard and she took advantage of that moment, she jumped on top of him, knocking him off his feet.

She wagged her tail a final time before changing human at the exact moment that Sirius did. They looked at each others excited eyes for half of a moment before bursting into laughter.

Sara picked herself off of the ground and Sirius pulled himself to his feet, then he joined her on the couch. She lay her head on his shoulder and stared at the floor.

"When?" she asked softly.

"Earlier this year… October, actually," Sirius answered happily, "You?" he asked.

"Only a week ago." Sara admitted, "How long did you try?" she asked nervously.

"Since second year. You?" He liked this game. He felt so honest.

"First. Ever since I heard about McGonagall. Why did you want to?" Sara asked. The money question.

"That's sort of… a loaded question," Sirius said uncomfortably.

Sara got nervous, "You don't have to tell me," she said hastily.

"No, I…You had the same timeline I had… You remember my friends, James, Peter and Remus?" Sirius asked, just to be sure.

"How could I forget the infamous Marauders?" Sara asked with a tiny smile.

"Right… Well, we're all Animagi. And… the reason we are is that Remus is a werewolf." Sirius said. It was like waiting on shards of glass, nervously awaiting her reaction, a scream or…something.

Sara let out a deep breath slowly, "Really?" she whispered. Sirius nodded slowly, "I'm so sorry for him… You are all such great friends… You did it so that you could be with him during the… the transformations… Didn't you?" she asked nervously.

Sirius smiled. She wasn't freaking out!

"Yes. Every month, we go with him to the Shrieking Shack."

"The Shrieking Shack?" Sara repeated, "All that… haunted house… That's you?" she asked.

"Well, mostly Remus,"

"But it's dangerous!" Sara exclaimed

"You don't want us to stop, do you?" Sirius asked incredulously, going off of her tone.

"Of course I don't. How could you possibly think I would?" she asked, slightly offended.

"And I know it's dangerous, and we all try not to hurt Remus, but… well," Sirius said quietly.

"He hurts you?" Sara asked quietly, a little shocked and in awe of his friendship.

"A bit," Sirius admitted. Sara looked up and implied that she wanted to see. "It's not that impressive. Mostly everything's healed by now. Been almost a month, hasn't it?"

Sara gave him another of her very versatile gazes and he smiled and lifted his shirt to show her a long, not-at-all healed gash across his chest. Sara gasped and reached out, then she caught her fingers. Sirius gave her a side-long glance.

"It's just… you said it was healed!" Sara exclaimed.

"It is," Sirius said, "Nearly,"

"But… but didn't I… hurt you?" Sara asked.

"Back there? No," Sirius said, talking about their tiny animagus- moment, "you couldn't hurt me,"

"I couldn't?" Sara asked skeptically.

"Well… not… easily," Sirius said nervously.

Sara leaned forward and kissed him deeply. Very, very deeply, which was gladly returned, then she pulled away and leaned back to look up at him. She was thinking hard, he knew, because she was twirling a bit of her hair and nibbling her bottom lip.

Sirius smiled, "Sara, I know we've never put a label on this, but… I like you a lot and I would be so happy if I could call you my girlfriend."

Sara beamed, "I would be very happy to call you my boyfriend." That bubble of excitement rose in both their stomachs, and Sirius kissed her again. She reached up and tangled her fingers in his long, perfect hair, and felt his fingers tugging at her waist, pulling her closer.

She complied, leaning forward further and further until she was lying on top of him. He had his hand on the small of her back and it almost made her shiver. She had a hand on the back of his neck, pulling gently.

He gently removed his mouth from hers and placed it on her neck. He kissed up and down it and large goose bumps appeared on her arms. He kissed around her mouth then, just before she absolutely couldn't stand it any longer, he returned to her mouth.

They returned to their friends in the Common Room almost an hour later. They flopped onto the couch as one and stared out happily to the Gryffindors surrounding them. Remus observed them carefully. They looked happy. Did that mean that she took it well? He couldn't tell, and he couldn't ask there.

He gave Sirius a look and jerked his head toward the boys dormitory. That was a signal that they'd been using forever, and Sirius got up to follow him without thinking, then he remembered Sara. He glanced down at her and Remus nodded.

"Sara?" he asked with a goofy sort of smile.

She raised an eyebrow, but allowed herself to be led to the bit of wall to the right of the Common Room portrait. Sirius tapped it with his wand, then entered the freshly appeared room. Sara smiled excitedly as she entered. She hadn't found this room before.

She allowed herself to be led to the animal portrait and down the long, dark tunnel. Sirius glanced through the grate, and saw Remus, Peter and James sitting on their beds, waiting nervously for him to get there with Sara.

He glanced back one last time before tapping the wall in front of him. It swung open slowly and Sirius stepped through with Sara right behind him. Sirius sat on his bed and waited for the wall to move back into place before beckoning Sara over to him. She sat carefully next to him. He pulled her closer. She didn't need to be nervous. In front of his friends.

Remus was the first to speak, "Well, I guess you know our secret," he said.

"And I want you all to know mine." Sara said bravely.

They all looked at her carefully and she transformed under their scrutinizing eyes. She set her apologetic gaze on each of them in turn before transforming back. She smiled weakly at their open mouths, and squeezed Sirius' arms that were wrapped around her.

"Okay," James said unsteadily. "Why does she always have to be better than us?"

Sirius and Sara laughed. They looked so perfect together that James smiled. He wondered if they were exclusive yet. It appeared so, but they'd appeared so before. He just saw it better now. They complimented each other and enjoyed each other and even looked a bit like each other.

They were both rather pale, and they both had black hair in this light. James knew perfectly well how surprising it was when they went outside and Sara was as much a redhead as Lily.

Sirius was smiling adoringly at Sara, who was looking around the room happily. She felt so honest, and like they could trust her. She felt so… in the loop.

"Ah… Sara," James said oddly, "What are your intentions with our brother? How far do you intend to go?" he asked.

Sirius snorted and Sara looked like she was going to say something very, very sarcastic, then she thought of something better, "As far as he'll let me," she said with a very large grin. Sirius held her a little tighter, his heart positively swelling.

James couldn't hold it in any longer, "And you are exclusive?" he asked protectively.

It was Sara who snorted this time, "Yes, Jamie… Oh wait, Prongs. I get it." She said slowly. "Stag, right? Huh… suits you. I don't get one of them, though… Wormtail?" she asked. Peter transformed into a rat.

"See, his tail is nasty. And it looks like a worm." Sirius explained smartly.

Sara laughed, "It does," she said. Peter transformed back and looked at her indignantly. "Sorry," she said insincerely. "Okay, so the only one I haven't seen is... Prongs," she said slowly, giving him time to transform. She smiled when he didn't do anything. "What?" she asked, "I don't deserve to see you? That's cool too,"

"Come on, Prongslett!" Sirius prodded. James sighed and knelt on the floor, then he transformed and even then the top of his antlers wasn't incredibly far from the ceiling.

"Wow," Sara said quietly, "Congratulations, you've lived up to your name," James turned back and smiled.

"And you're sure you don't have any problems with… Remus?" James asked nervously, glancing back at the boy who hadn't said a word yet. Sara was taking all of this almost too well. It was unnatural.

"Of course I don't, in fact… I want to help. I want to go. The full moon is in a few days, and I want to be a part of it," Sara said firmly. Sirius looked surprised. His eyes got a little wider.

"No," Remus said flatly. Sara turned on him. "I won't let you. I don't even want this lot to, and no offense but… well, you're a girl, and…" he trailed off unhappily.

"Excuse me?" Sara asked coldly.

"I just mean that," Remus attempted, "you aren't as strong, and Sirius would be worried about you and-"

"No," James said quietly, "I can handle you on my own," he finished, trying not to actually say that he thought that Sara should be allowed to go.

Remus looked between the two people who were actually paying attention. Peter was staring vacantly into space. James was sending him a pleading look, Sara was looking at him defiantly and Sirius was looking at Sara. Remus could tell that he was outnumbered.

"Fine. You can go. But if it doesn't go well… If I hurt you-,"

"You won't." Sara said firmly. Sirius was so in admiration of her. She was so strong, so funny and beautiful and perfect. He wondered again if he… No. He wouldn't let himself finish that thought. He had only today started seeing her exclusively. This was so unlike him it almost frightened him.

Remus smiled, "All right." Sara beamed at him. She always got her way.

"Okay, then, gentlemen. I should go to bed." Sara said, sensing that there was something that nobody wanted to say in front of her. Sirius nodded and released her. Sara smiled at him while she walked out of the room. She liked that about him. He was there for her when she needed him, but he gave her enough space to breathe.

"Okay, guys. If this goes well… How about an inauguration into the Marauders?" Sirius asked nervously.

James smiled sympathetically, "I knew you would want that," he said sadly. There were equally glum faces looking at him from every bed.

"Why not?" he asked, guessing their answer.

Remus was the one who answered this one. "She's a girl, for one thing. And you're dating her for another. What if you break up? She could tell someone everything, even by accident."

"So you don't trust me?" Sirius asked defensively.

"Of course we do!" James exclaimed incredulously, "We're just not… 100 percent about her."

Sirius stared around the room like he was going to explode. James and Remus were watching him carefully. He had a very short temper and it wouldn't be unlike him to throw something just then.

"Why not?" Sirius practically barked.

"We didn't even know she was a Gryffindor until a few weeks ago!" James shouted, "You can't expect us to trust her completely just because you do!"

"That's right! I do! Doesn't that mean anything?" Sirius shouted back.

"No!" James snapped.

Smash went a glass from next to the water pitcher. James leaned back. There really wasn't anything you could do when Sirius got angry. Just wait it out, and right now he felt like throwing water glasses.

"_I_ ruddy trust her!" Sirius exclaimed, and threw another glass at the wall.

Remus looked at him a wearily said "Look, Padfoot, this decision isn't completely yours. It's all of ours and right now you're outnumbered."

Sirius huffed, but he realized that they were right. This was another part of his temper. Usually it went away as quickly as it came. He leaned back in his bed and James and Remus shot each other grateful looks. It was over. Peter looked dazed.

"So… she's not a Marauder?" he asked

"No, she's bloody not." Sirius snapped.

"I'm sorry," Peter said honestly.

"I am too," said Sirius sadly. He sighed one last time before rolling over and trying to go to sleep. He accomplished his goal almost three hours later, because without his nightmare ritual it just didn't happen.

A/N- I rather like this chapter. More of Sara's secrets will be revealed in time. You know, I have a lot of Sara's habits. Like messing with my hair when I'm really upset and trying not to say anything about it, lol!

Love it or hate it, at least tell me why!


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Nothing that you recognize belongs to me. Do you honestly think that's changed?

The full moon came quickly after that. A cluster of Gryffindors were impatiently waiting in the Common Room for Remus to beckon them. Then they would go up to the dormitory and leave through the secret room. Sirius and Sara would just leave out the portrait. It would cause less suspicion. They made small talk nervously while James pretended to be interested in Liz and stole glances at Lily.

"Prongs," Sirius warned carefully when his gaze lingered a bit too long. James nodded and looked at his friend instead. Sara and he were curled together. They both looked nervous.

Peter was in their dormitory by himself. He didn't even want to go tonight, but he would. He had to. Who else would press the knot in the tree? He just felt so replaced by Sirius' new girlfriend.

Finally, Remus, who was sitting in a large chair in the Common Room nodded and all three rose as one. James went to the dormitory and Sirius waited a moment of smiling at Sara before they left the Common Room, hand in hand, implying their destination.

They made their way quickly to the spot off of the common room entrance and waited nervously for James and Peter to appear. They burst out a moment after and the four of them shuffled to the Whomping Willow.

Peter glanced back at them before transforming and scuffling forward to press the knot. Sara was impressed with his agility that was so absent in human form.

James slid into the entrance after Peter, and then Sirius went in. Just after he left, the Willow's branches started attacking again, and Sara had to go in before she should have. She landed hard on something soft and warm, which she was grateful for. Then she realized that it was Sirius.

"Oh! Sorry," she said quickly, and started to lift herself to her feet.

"Don't be," Sirius said suavely. He held her a little closer and didn't let her go until James coughed.

"Right," he muttered, he picked himself and Sara off the ground, then followed his friends to the Shrieking Shack. Remus was sitting alone in the room that he always waited for them in. Sara didn't look surprised at the state of the house, and Sirius wondered why.

"Just a tiny bit of curious breaking and entering," she muttered. Sirius smiled. He loved this girl! Wait, did he just… He shook his head. That wasn't what he meant. They found Remus and waited a moment or two. None of them knew what to say.

"All right. Now, Sara, if anything goes wrong, you get yourself out of here." Remus ordered grimly. Sara nodded because she knew it would make him feel better, not that she would actually leave. "Good." He said.

His muscles tensed and his breathing became shaky moments after his monosyllabic reply. The boys nodded and transformed at the same moment, Sara transformed stupidly a moment after and waited for Remus to finish transforming as well.

He stared at them angrily in werewolf form. Why had they brought someone? The new one looked scared so he lunged at her. She had the feeling that he was going to attack her first, and she had braced herself accordingly. She lunged back and the two of them rolled over and shoved each other around for a long time. Remus bit and scratched her, but she shook it off.

She finally managed to get him on the ground and she stared at him viciously. She bit him on the neck and then climbed off carefully. She trotted to Sirius and sat down. He went in next. He was angry with Remus for attacking Sara! But James got to Remus first, to give Sirius time to cool down.

Remus recognized this stag, and he played with him for a bit. He didn't want to hurt him so he was far gentler with him than he had been with Sara. Peter ran over to the dogs and laid down next to them, looking for protection. Sirius looked down at him in disgust but Sara gave him an odd sort of glance that he couldn't sort out. Maybe… understanding? No, it must have been pity.

The night wore on with the werewolf only trying to hurt anybody when Sara jumped in. She took the scratches and bites very well and didn't stop until he did, shortly after dawn. The four animagi transformed back, looking thoroughly exhausted.

"Damn, Sara," Sirius exclaimed. She raised an eyebrow and smiled at him through her pain.

She was nearly covered in blood, gashes were everywhere, nearly completely covering her. Her cheek had a long slash running down it, oozing blood. James looked concerned and Remus and Peter both were asleep.

"I'm fine. Don't you do this every month?" Sara asked

James shook his head, "It's not that bad anymore, only was the first month, really," he said honestly.

"Oh, well it should get better then, shouldn't it?" Sara asked bravely.

Sirius nodded although he couldn't get over how hurt she was.

They stumbled up to the castle using all the back passages they knew, dragging Remus and making Peter walk. They all went to the boys dormitory, where Sara wouldn't be bothered about her new wounds.

Remus went to the hospital wing and everybody else trooped to the bathroom one by one to try to clean themselves up. Sara had the same feelings of pride about the wounds, so she didn't try amazingly hard to heal herself. She changed into a pair of Remus' robes because he was the closest to her size, and came back out of the bathroom. Sirius was waiting for her. He looked upset.

He held her hands loosely and waited for the others to return. Then they went to the Great Hall and tried to pretend that they were awake.

That day was so close to impossible to endure that none of them even tried to be themselves. They were all dull and depressing. The only really good thing happened for James. Lily seemed to like the quiet Prongs and she talked to him in Potions, which both were brilliant in.

"Oh, dear," Sara said went they finally returned to the Common Room, "Well… Dad will be pleased,"

Sirius, who was right behind her, saw that she was looking at everybody's grades which were posted on the wall. He had done very well, like he always did.

"What do you mean?" he asked curiously.

"Can't you see?" she asked him sarcastically, he smiled; he loved that.

"Apparently not," he said with a tiny chuckle, "How'd you do?"

Sara sighed, "Just barely managed to pass the majority of my classes… failed Divination… and Defense…" she finished miserably.

Sirius was surprised, "I thought you did well!" he exclaimed.

Sara shot him a wry smile, "Key word 'did'. I sort of stopped paying attention when I worked on my… you know what," she said quietly, implying her Animagus form.

Actually, she had a quite curious reaction to the various potions necessary to become one. her best friend Matt, (the red head that she was always hanging around) couldn't explain it to her. She got violently ill at the simplest potion. It was quite strange.

Sirius nodded. "Why will your dad be pleased?" he asked with mild concern. He realized then that he'd never heard about her dad.

"Oh, he hates me." Sara replied lightly, "He's been waiting since I was six for me to fail something. Unfortunately for him I usually understand everything. Well…That's what I get,"

"What do you mean, he hates you?" Sirius asked carefully, wondering if she was in the same situation as he was.

"Well… he claims it's all my fault, that I don't want a relationship with him, but he's just awful…" Sara said, slightly depressed. Sirius nodded, but he had the feeling that she wasn't telling him everything. In complete honesty, she wasn't.

"Well, we're leaving tomorrow," Sirius said devilishly, "I think we should go say goodbye." Sara nodded happily and they went off to a more private room.

James sighed. He had top marks, as usual, and his owls had gone remarkably well, but Lily was angry with him for not being very nice to Snivellus during their Defense owl. On the bright side, she had spoken to him _today_.

Maybe that's what he needed to do. Calm down and be quiet. It was worth a try. He had dated a few girls in addition to snogging nearly all of them and he could tell that nothing in this world compared to Lily.

The next morning came to early for everyone. They packed their things into a compartment on the school train and packed themselves in, too. All of them managed to fit in.

Sara and Sirius were nearly sitting on one another so they didn't take up too much space. Peter was sprawled out over half the compartment, sleeping. Remus and James sat up and talked about their summers.

"There it is," Remus commented grimly as the train came to a stop.

"There it is," James replied. A tiny smile grew on his lips and identical grins grew on Sirius' and Remus'.

"What?" Sara asked, slightly frightened. Demonic smiles of three Marauders were never a good thing.

"Nothing," Sirius replied innocently. They stood simultaneously and screamed "We're here!" They whipped out their wands and flicked them three times. Streamers flew out of the ends with balloons and bubbles.

"Huh? I missed it?" Peter cried unhappily.

"Sorry, Pete," Sirius said insincerely.

This was their tradition. The moment that they got to Kings Cross, they did a bit of last minute magic to remember the year by. He had to admit that the show got better every year. They all left the train with Cheshire cat grins.

Sirius said goodbye to Sara one last time. "I'll owl you," he promised, leaning down to kiss her.

"And I'll owl you." Sara said. He detected a hint of fear in her voice, but none on her face.

"Sara! Get over here!" a gruff male voice barked. Sirius' eyes flashed red. Who was talking to her like that?

Sara glanced at Sirius one last time, "Goodbye," she said quietly.

"Girl, I told you once. Get over here!" he ordered again. Sara walked swiftly to a squat older man that seemed to be slightly balding. He was glaring at Sara with utter dislike.

"Got an owl this morning. You failed. You're not worth it. You're not worth anything." He barked. Sirius wanted to say something if not hit the man, but he stopped himself. That wouldn't help Sara, who hadn't said anything to the man. "Go get in the car. Now!" Sara did as he told him without a glance back.

Sirius walked over to James where his parents were looking around happily, reminiscing, no doubt, about their own days at Hogwarts. "Paddie!" James exclaimed, "I thought you'd be too busy to say goodbye!"

"Of course not." Sirius reassured his best friend. "Actually… I think I need to owl Sara about her dad… or who I assume is her dad," he paused, "Hello, Mr. And Mrs. Potter,"

"Sirius, dear, you must come for part of the summer," Mrs. Potter offered warmly. The Potters had long since accepted Sirius as their second son, but they were also aware of his home-life, and knew that he probably couldn't stay for any of the summer.

"Thanks, Mrs. Potter." Sirius said gratefully. Sometimes, it was just nice to know that somebody wanted you. "I think I see my mum. Bye," he said, then he waved to the Potters and strode away quickly.

He had, in fact, seen the regal looking Mrs. Black. "Hello, mum," he said cheerfully. She glared down at him grumpily but didn't say anything. She turned on her heel and left the station, positively glowering at everyone around her.

Sirius side-apparated home and stared down the mansion around him. number twelve Grimauld Place was as grim an old place as ever. It appeared that their house elf, Kreacher, was still around, as his head was not yet mounted on the wall. But it was also clear that he was getting on in years, and not cleaning anything as well as he used to.

Sirius grabbed his trunk and hauled it up the stairs to his bedroom one door down from his brother, Regulus. He stashed the trunk behind the familiar depressing door and straightened briefly, catching the eye of another Black staring at him.

"Hi, Reg." Sirius said vacantly.

"Sirius," Regulus greeted before retreating into his bedroom.

"Weirdo," Sirius muttered, then he went into the room that he would be seeing a lot of that holiday. He sat down on his bed and stared around him. It looked so much emptier than he remembered it. Like it didn't want him there.

It was much less inviting than his dormitory at Hogwarts, but maybe that had something to do with the other students inside it.

They were Gryffindors, and proud of it. That particular fact made his parents dislike him. It made his parents angry and made them look down on him.

As far back as the Black family line went, they were Slytherins. Why did Sirius have to go and ruin it?

Sirius accepted that he had to watch where he stepped a little more carefully than if he was a Slytherin. Regulus couldn't possibly do wrong in their book, and if he did, then it was actually right since the whole family was wrong.

It was no doubt that that fall he would be placed in Slytherin, or maybe forget Hogwarts altogether. H would do fine in Durmstrang.

There was a knock on the door and the most that Sirius did to acknowledge it was to glance up briefly from the letter that he was writing to Sara. Another knock came soon after.

"Open the damn door!"

_Hmm, sounds like mother_, Sirius thought sarcastically, striding across the room and opening it.

His mother walked into the room with his dad not too far behind. They both looked like they were on a mission.

"Since you refuse to be in a respectable house at that god-awful school, we're taking your broom for the summer."

Sirius' jaw clenched immediately. How dare they. His broom?

Whatever sick pleasure his parents got out of torturing him certainly seemed satisfied as they opened his trunk and removed his Nimbus one thousand. It was his most prized possession, the fastest model ever invented, and they were taking it.

He couldn't retaliate. It wouldn't do any good. They would just get angrier.

_**Slam!**_

He couldn't help it. It made him feel better and they couldn't say anything about it even if they were angrier as the door was just slammed in their faces.

Sirius threw himself onto his bed and wracked a hand through his hair. He took a deep breath and tried to calm down, but inside he was fuming. He didn't do anything to deserve having one of the only important things in his life taken away.

He had already been punished for being a Gryffindor every time that he saw his relatives. If he hadn't made them realize that he wasn't switching by now, he didn't know what else he had to do.

Shakily, he sat back down at his desk and continued writing the letter.

He finished angrily, his mood seeming to leap from the page, wanting to attack the reader. He stood and walked to the bathroom briefly, and when he came back the means of sending his letter was gone. His owl. His communication to the outside world. They took that, too. The cage as well as the chipper little bird were nowhere in sight.

Sirius sighed heavily and leafed through his trunk. What he was looking for was in the very bottom, hidden so well that it took him more than a moment to remember where he put it.

With a vigor, he yanked out the square mirror and said "James Potter" very clearly. Slowly, a room appeared. Sirius figured that it must have been James' bedroom, since there was a bed and James' trunk was sitting a bit away from it.

"Prongs!" he shouted. No answer. He tried again, "Prongs!!" No answer. Fine.

His parents and now his best friend. They had abandoned him. Left him in his room without any way to contact anybody but his family and their insane ideas about the Dark Arts.

Sirius drew a shaky breath, willing himself not to react. It was only his first day back. There were plenty left for him to lose his temper.

By the time that July came to pass, Sirius was about to go mad. He still couldn't contact James although he tried six or seven times a day, and his parents had now taken anything that they decided would make him remotely happy.

Sirius was lying on his bed, staring moodily at the ceiling. He couldn't even do his homework as they had taken his trunk. He didn't know where they put all of his things, but he intended to get them back.

Sirius kept telling himself that he should be used to it by now. That his parents took his trunk every holiday and like always he would just have to copy Remus' homework on the train, but he just couldn't get over it.

What kind of sick people confiscate everything that would give him even the most remote bit of happiness? Anything that would even remind him of happiness? Sirius glared up at a spot on the ceiling, cursing it into oblivion, when he heard his name.

"Padfoot? Sirius?" it called, Sirius leapt to his feet and dug between the mattress and the floor. He pulled out the square mirror and looked into it with relief.

"Prongs, mate, bloody took you long enough," Sirius complained.

"Sorry, Pads. I went to France and forgot the mirror," James said genuinely.

"Yeah, well," Sirius brooded, then he shook his head. James had already heard all of his problems. He didn't need to hear them again. He probably didn't need to hear them the first time. "How was France?" he asked.

James made a face, "You don't care about that. How've your parents been?"

"Yes I do, and terrible," Sirius protested half-heartedly. James continued staring at him until he caved, "All right, they're threatening to take my pillow. Now tell me about France. Did you meet anyone?" Sirius asked, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

James scoffed, "Your pillow? And no, of course not, I'm all Lily,"

Sirius rolled his eyes, "When are you going to get over her? Half the school is waiting to snog your brains out,"

James snorted, "And the other half are waiting for you?" he asked

"Of course!" Sirius replied happily. It felt so nice to talk to someone who didn't want you dead.

"Still. I never said I didn't snog anybody, I just wish it were Lily," James said simply.

"So you did have a good snog," Sirius said cheerfully. James smiled and looked like he was going to say something when Sirius' mother burst through his bedroom door.

He waved his hand over the mirror hastily, making James' image disappear, then looked into it interestedly.

"What is that?" she asked snottily.

"I don't know, I found it in my trunk, I didn't know my hair was so long," Sirius muttered unhappily.

"You're coming to dinner now." his mother ordered.

Sirius put the mirror in his pocket and followed her to the dining room downstairs. He knew better than to leave anything unattended in this house. He sat down gracefully at the large polished wooden table, trying to ignore the stares from his brother who was sitting across from him.

"Regulus, have you put any thought into which school you want to go to?" Walburga asked a few minutes later. Sirius couldn't understand why she demanded that he be there if she was just going to ignore him.

"Yes, mother," Regulus said promptly. Sirius ate his soup as quickly as he could, ignoring the way it scalded his tongue. "I wish to go to Hogwarts,"

The woman smiled and nodded approvingly. Of course, little Reggie could go to whatever school he wanted. No hour long lectures on how Hogwarts wasn't Dark Arts centered enough.

"Make sure that you get into Slytherin," she said articulately.

"Yes, mother," Regulus said, giving Sirius a pointed look before turning to his food.

"And boy, you'd better stop," she said coldly to her older son.

"What?" Sirius asked rudely. He didn't care.

"Don't say _what_ with that ungrateful tone, that common way. You're no better than the rest of them," his mother snapped cruelly.

"The rest of who?" Sirius asked as crudely as he could.

"The mud-bloods and muggles and the rest of the filth in that school," she hissed.

"Oh, you mean my brother?" Sirius asked coolly.

"Get out of here," she said in a low, supposed-to-be-menacing voice.

"With pleasure," Sirius said, standing and leaving the table.

"Why isn't he more like you, Regulus, dear?" his mother asked absently as he left. Sirius' muscles tensed a little more.

"I don't know, mother. I suppose it's just exposure to those filthy mud-bloods," Regulus said regally.

Sirius could feel his anger seeping up in his throat and he hurried to his room before it exploded. He closed the door and strode over to his desk. He hurled an ink bottle against the farthest wall, relishing in the satisfying shatter.

That wasn't enough. He threw another one, then his quill. That was all that was in his room. He rushed at the wall and threw all of his weight into it. He made a good sized dent and his shoulder throbbed terribly, but he felt better.

"Paddie?" he heard James' nervous voice from somewhere in the recesses of his deep pocket.

He pulled on a pleasant expression and dragged out the mirror. He looked into it, keeping his muscles as relaxed as they would go. "Hi, Prongs," he said amiably.

"Pads, what the hell was that?" he asked anxiously, "It sounded like an earthquake,"

Sirius laughed harshly, "hurricane Sirius," he said darkly.

"That was you?" James asked worriedly, "Aren't your parents going to freak?"

"Probably," Sirius said coolly.

"Paddie, what the hell?" Prongs exclaimed.

"What?" Sirius remembered what had happened mere minutes before and burst into maniacal laughter.

"Ah… Padfoot?" James asked cautiously, "You losing your mind over there?"

Unfortunately that only made Sirius laugh harder. It was a completely serious question.

"Yes!" Sirius gasped through his laughter. James looked concerned and Sirius tried to pull it together so he wouldn't know that something had happened. He didn't need that. "So… how was France?" Sirius asked again.

"Fine, I already told you," James chastised, then he shook his head slightly, "Look, I just wanted to know if you could come to my house for a bit of the holiday," he suggested.

Sirius snorted, "Yeah, that'll happen. Mummy, I realize that you hate me and my friends, but can I go be 'influenced' a bit more?" he feigned enthusiasm and looked effectively like an excited puppy.

"Influenced? And why does she hate me?" James asked confusedly.

"You don't need to hear it," Sirius said, yelling at himself internally for saying anything.

"But you need to say it," James pointed out.

Sirius sighed, "Look, she's got nothing to do with it. I hate her and she hates me. That makes her hate anything with the slightest chance of making me happy. Speaking of, could you owl Sara?"

"Uh, sure, but… what happened to Owl?" James asked. Owl was Sirius' bird.

"Just… send Birdie. Okay?" obviously Birdie was James' owl.

"Okay," James said uncertainly, he ripped out a blank page from a random notebook sitting next to him and wrote Sirius on the front.

"Birdie!" he called.

A moment later a large winged owl came swooping in the open window.

"Give this to Sirius, would you? And stick around, I think he needs you to bring something to someone."

The bird nipped James' finger and flew back out the window.

"Thanks, mate," Sirius said, relief pouring out of him.

"Hasn't Sara written?" James asked curiously.

Sirius' jaw clenched again, "No," he said as simply as he could.

He knew why, of course. It was that awful man that she had for a father. James frowned.

"Well, ask if you can come," he said. Then he had to leave and once again, Sirius was alone. Not too long after, a large winged bird flew into Sirius' waiting window.

"Hello, Birdie," Sirius said, smiling slightly as he remembered the day that they both bought their owls. "I've got something for you. Do you have time?" he asked. The bird gave him a look and he laughed, "Of course you do. Here, give this to Sara. You know her, I introduced you in the owlery at school. Very pretty girl. Dark hair, you know the one," Sirius described, tying his letter to the owl.

He figured that if she simply didn't have an owl he could fix that. They could send Birdie back and forth. James wouldn't mind. If her dad got the letter, there wouldn't be anything implied. Sirius had made sure of that.

The owl left and Sirius sank onto his bed sadly. He knew that it was ridiculous to miss an owl, but it was also ridiculous how many dents there were in the walls of that room.

Everything about his life so far was ridiculous. His friendships were ridiculous, his grades were ridiculous, and his relationship with Sara was ridiculous.

He laid down on his bed and tried to sleep. Tried to ignore the amazing amount of sun streaming in the still-open window. He forced his eyes closed. He forced his mind clear. He couldn't transform in that house, it was too dangerous. Someone could see him. But he could dream about it. He could remember it. There was something simpler about being a dog that just didn't happen when he was human.

'Okay,' he thought to himself. 'Clear your mind.'

He remembered all those long boring hours that he tried to mediate, tried to see his form. All words were wiped out of his brain, leaving pictures behind. Black and white pictures. There were Prongs and Moony and Wormtail and that beautiful black dog (other than himself). It was Sara. There was the two of them, in dog form, lying under a large beech tree, perfectly content. Then they turned human and walked along the edge of the lake, laughing at the giant squid, sharing a rare mushy moment.

_Tap, tap, tap_

"Huh?" Sirius grunted, sitting up. Oh, Birdie was standing on his headboard, trying to get his attention.

"Hi," he saw the letter in the owls beak and grabbed it greedily, "Hang on," he muttered to the bird. He scanned the letter quickly and felt a great load of disappointment settling in his stomach.

_Sirius_

_I got your letter and don't know what you're talking about. My home-life is wonderful and I just don't think that I know you well enough to answer any of your other questions. _

_Have a good holiday,_

_Sara_

Sirius read this letter so many times that he was sure he had it memorized. He was also sure that it must have held some secret message. Something that he had overlooked. He heard an impatient click and waved Birdie away to go back to James, then he dug his mirror out of his pocket and called for "James Potter".

Blackness filled the mirror and Sirius snorted, "OI! Prongs!" he shouted.

There was a loud rustling, "Huh? Oh, hi," James said distractedly.

"Where are you?" Sirius asked rudely.

"Ah… nowhere," James said hurriedly, "What?"

"Um, Sara replied and it didn't make sense, I was kind of hoping that your genius could help me out," Sirius replied as quickly as James had.

"Huh, well… what did she say?" James asked, Sirius was right, the compliment made him want to help Sirius.

"She said that she doesn't know me and that her home-life is great… which is a load of dung and we all know it," Sirius said uncomfortably.

"She was probably just rushed," James said.

"No, she wasn't. She could've taken as much time as she needed with Birdie. Besides, she could've said something more…" Sirius trailed off, he didn't know how to say it. It didn't sound like her.

"I don't know," James said impatiently.

"Prongs, what's wrong with you?" Sirius asked rudely.

James huffed, "Nothing. Just… I'll talk to you later, okay? Don't do anything stupid," Sirius waved his hand over the mirror and James' image disappeared.

This depressed him even more. Sirius sighed and leaned back on his pillows. He was actually surprised with his mother. He expected her to come raging up the stairs and beat him or something for how terrible he had been. He didn't honestly think that he did anything wrong. She'd insulted his friends, what was he expected to do but retort.

He would have to keep his tongue better than that in the future. He couldn't expect her to be tolerant ever again. He would survive that summer only by remembering the times at Hogwarts and meditating as well as he could.

"Boy! Get down here!" his mother ordered. Sirius followed her voice to the dining room. "Clean these dishes then get started on the kitchen. Poor Kreacher isn't doing so well," she said almost sympathetically.

Sirius felt a boil of anger flaring up in his chest, "fine." He said tightly. He stalked towards the singing kitchen door and did the dishes soundlessly. He even started wiping a sponge around the counters before his mother and Regulus came into the room. he managed to ignore their presence until he felt their cold gaze on his back. He turned around to look at them and stared them down defiantly.

"Boy, put that down." His mum ordered, "Don't you start cleaning like a house elf… Like a muggle," she spat.

Regulus actually looked quite pleased with himself for being there to see all of this. "Sirius, why don't you understand that you are a pure blood wizard?" he asked as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Sirius' muscles tensed the last bit that they would go, but he managed to remain quiet.

"Exactly. Your brother understands. You are supposed to be better than that mud-blood filth that you hang around," his mother said coldly.

"They're all a right side better than you," Sirius said.

He couldn't help it. He knew he shouldn't have said anything, but he couldn't help it. She did this so often. Insulted his friends and everybody who was remotely nice to him. He couldn't take it any longer.

"Pardon me?" his mother asked cruelly.

"I said," Sirius stated clearly, "That anybody is a hell of a lot better than you and your fanatic evil friends who you are just as terrible as," he spat and ran out of the kitchen.

He found his trunk exactly where he assumed that it would be, in his parents unlocked bedroom closet. He yanked it out and dug for his wand, grabbed his Nimbus and made his way for the front door.

"You ungrateful wretch, put those back!" his mother ordered.

"No," Sirius said defiantly, not even looking back.

He opened the door and mounted his broom when it felt as if the whole house had collided with the side of his face. He glared at his mother, the woman who had just hit him, and waved his wand towards his trunk so that it would hover behind him. His mother managed to smack him one last time before he kicked off and got the hell out of that house.

A/N-Voila! Sirius has escaped! And you'll learn more about Sara's letter in a few chapters. You see, Some things must remain irritatingly in shadow to be revealed at a much more better time so that you will be as surprised as I was when I wrote it. That makes me sound terribly unorganized…which I am!

I'll admit that I didn't have a plan for this, so some things don't come in until later, which is when I thought of them!

Love it or hate it, at least tell me why!


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Nothing that you recognize belongs to me. Bit tiring, isn't it?

Sirius flew at random for many hours, not caring who saw him. He had a vague idea of where he was going, though he had never given his full attention to the journey there.

He was headed for James' house.

He landed when the rain made it difficult to see, and pulled his mirror out of his pocket.

"James Potter," he ordered loudly over the loud pattering of raindrops on the cement around him.

"Sirius?" his friend asked tiredly.

"James, where do you live?" he asked. He tried to make his inquiry sound based on pure curiosity, not the fact that that was where he was going.

"Sirius, I… I don't really have time now. There are… people here." James said distractedly. Then his image disappeared and Sirius was left to wander the skies.

He wondered vacantly if he should call the Night Bus. On the other hand it was at least as dangerous to ride that thing as it was to wander around with impaired vision and no real directions. Besides, he really felt like being by himself just then, and the people on that bus never left you alone.

Sirius felt relatively abandoned, but he knew that James wouldn't leave him like that without a very good reason. Sirius chose to wander the streets by foot for a bit. What else was he supposed to do?

He stowed his shrunken Nimbus in his trunk but kept his wand on him, tucked into the belt loop of his jeans. He was very aware that the rain was making his hair clump and look unpleasantly stringy, and that his shirt was sticking to his chest uncomfortably. Really, though. Who else was crazy enough to walk around out in the rain? Especially not attractive females who would want to protect their own appearance.

He wandered the streets with his trunk held by one hand. He had charmed it feather light a few years ago. Sirius thought that he saw somebody wave a stick resembling a wand at a flower to protect it from the rain, but at second glance it turned out to be just a gardener with a shovel.

Sirius was slightly disappointed with his navigation skills and nearly wanted to explode his own brain for not even being positive of where he wanted to go. He wandered the soaking city for as long as he could stand it. Then, he again took flight. It was so dark that he could barely see.

Sirius remembered what Potter Manor looked like, so he could recognize it if he ever passed it, which it didn't look like he ever would. He had been flying for hours. He circled the same parts of the same cities over and over, positive that he had somehow overlooked the magnificent yellow house.

Godics Hollow. He remembered that because it sounded funny. Godric Gryffindor. Okay, that was a start. He knew something about the place that he was looking for. He also knew that it wasn't too far from his house. The tiny mirrors wouldn't work if they were terribly far away.

He started flying lower and lower as the night wore on. It was so late that he was having trouble keeping his eyes open. He saw a tree that looked familiar, but then again it was a bloody tree. They all looked like identical twins. He saw a lamp post that he was certain he had seen before… His eyes snapped open.

He was there.

He smiled at the large yellow house that looked regal and inviting in the extreme that Grimauld place was poignant and depressing.

Sirius flew to the window that he knew was James' and slid it open. James was sleeping fitfully as Sirius stepped into his window, leaving his trunk and broom on the ledge outside.

Suddenly, James leapt to his feet and brandished his wand. Sirius jumped back and held up his hands in surrender.

"Padfoot?" James asked drowsily.

"No, it's the boogey man," Sirius retorted sarcastically.

"What are you doing here?" James asked curiously, trying to wake up, but clearly failing miserably.

Sirius got nervous. He didn't like asking people for things, "Er… Prongs? Could… Could I stay here for a bit?" he asked.

James smiled sleepily, "Sure, Paddie," then he flopped back into his bed, "Why are you here so late?"

"Um… I kind of… ran away," Sirius admitted lamely.

Immediately, James sat up at attention. "You what?" he asked sharply.

"I… ran away. Come on, though. You had to know that was coming," Sirius said disbelievingly.

"You walked here in the middle of the night without dry clothes or anything?" James asked slowly. Sirius was tempted to point out that had he brought dry clothes with him, they would no longer be dry. "Did they take everything?"

"No," Sirius said, "I flew, and my trunk's outside,"

"Why didn't you call the Night Bus?" James asked curiously. "Never mind, I know that one… Okay, sure. Come on, let's go get your stuff,"

Sirius grinned. This was the kind of friend that James was. His best. The two of them climbed back out the window and seized Sirius' trunk. They hauled it into the room and set it on the floor.

James grabbed a pillow and a blanket from off his bed and settled himself in on the floor, pointing vacantly at his bed.

"Damn," Sirius muttered, suddenly alarmed, and wanting to hex himself for being so stupid.

"What is it?" James asked drowsily.

"Owl," Sirius said. He exchanged glances with James. Both were reasonably horrified. Sirius Black had left his owl at that grim old place that he hated.

"We'll figure it out in the morning." James said wisely.

Sirius sighed. James was right, of course, but that didn't mean that Sirius could stop worrying about the torture his poor Owl would be going through just then. James was asleep in minutes, and almost an hour later, the lull of the soft bed underneath him pulled Sirius into a light slumber as well.

Sirius woke amazingly early the next morning, though he didn't know why. He was nervous and anxious and the next moment the day before came flooding back to him. He shot up in James' bed and stared around the room. It was only dimly lit, but he could see Birdie. It depressed him terribly. Birdies twin, Owl was missing.

He stared at James, willing him to wake up, but that was selfish. He shuffled over to Birdie and stroked his head, trying not to think about his own little Owl. The bird ruffled his feathers importantly and looked past him. Sirius felt a weight on his shoulder and he turned, expecting James. It was Owl!

"Well, hello." he muttered, "How did you find me?" The owl nipped his finger affectionately and fluttered over to Birdie. He settled down on the perch next to his brother and stared at Sirius pointedly.

"Pads?" James asked vacantly, "Oh," he whispered. He stood and embraced Sirius like the brother that he was, then stepped back and looked at his friend with concern. "Hey, we can practice here. My parents will be sort of busy for awhile," he said brightly.

"Yeah," Sirius said, knowing that James was talking about their Animagus transformations. "Why will they be busy? And who was here yesterday?" he asked.

"Ah…They were Death Eaters, and they wanted to recruit my parents." James replied heavily. Sirius stared at him, in shock.

"Huh?" he asked stupidly.

"You heard me. Come on, we've got to catch someone before they go to work," James told him, striding out of the room to the kitchen downstairs. "Mum! Dad!" he exclaimed.

"Yes?" James' mum called back. She went to work an hour or two after his father.

"We… we have a house guest for the rest of the summer. Isn't that great?" James asked nervously.

"Of course, dear. How is Sirius?" James smiled at Sirius. How his mum always knew was beyond them.

Sirius grinned, "I'm fine, Mrs. Potte.," he walked in the door and sat down at the small table in the middle of the gleaming kitchen with the happy Potters.

"Your mum said you could stay? How nice!" Mrs. Potter said happily.

"Not… exactly," Sirius said uncomfortably.

James stepped in here. He shook his head violently behind Sirius. Due to his heightened canine hearing, Sirius knew exactly what James was doing, and he appreciated it.

"Well… they do know where you are, don't they?" she asked with concern spreading out over her face. Whether or not the Blacks particularly liked Sirius was irrelevant. They were still his family and they still deserved to know where he was.

"They don't care." Sirius muttered. James gave his mother a pointed look and she dropped the subject until later.

"Do have some toast, dear." Mrs. Potter suggested to Sirius. How thin he had gotten in such a short amount of time had not passed her by.

"Thanks, Mrs. Potter," Sirius said gratefully and spread jam on a piece of toast.

James sat down next to Sirius and avoided his eyes. James grabbed the Daily Prophet issue that was stretched out on the table before his mum. He smiled. His parents were so weird.

Every morning, both of James' parents would wake up at an obscene hour and his dad would read the paper. Just before he left for work, he would refold the paper so that Mrs. Potter could enjoy it properly. She said that it just wasn't the same unless she got to unfold it.

They ate breakfast with a bit of idle chatter, but mostly in silence. The moment that James stood, Sirius was at his side. They strode back up the stairs to James' room and closed the door firmly.

"Okay, I know you haven't practiced at least since you got home." James said wisely. He glanced at Sirius though the signal was unnecessary, and simultaneously they transformed.

The large dog tilted his head, waiting for the stag to nod in reassurance and approval. What he got looked a lot like a frown. Sirius stared back at James, confusion written in his eyes.

James rolled his eyes and nodded towards the floor that Sirius was standing on.

Oops. He was bald.

Sirius' tongue lolled out of his mouth and he shook himself violently, then concentrated again.

_A dog. A big hairy black dog. Come on, you know this…_ He opened one eye uncertainly and saw his friend staring at him in disbelief. He transformed back human so that he could retort.

"What?" Sirius snapped.

"You… haven't practiced. Wow." James muttered, "You sort of lost you tail… and your ears…"

Sirius snorted, "Right," he said rudely, then he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He could see the shaggy black dog running at him, prancing along the side of a large green forest. There it went. There was a warm tickling sensation around his ears and he knew that the transformation must have begun. He opened his eyes nervously and saw James looking at him approvingly.

"Good dog," James said happily, reaching forward to scratch his friend behind his floppy ears. Sirius growled deeply and snapped at James' fingers. James laughed. "Temperamental, are you? All right," then he transformed and tackled the dog.

They just about matched each other where strength was concerned, but James had the upper-hand by far with his height, and those enormous antlers. He raised his head regally, most of his weight still pinning Sirius to the ground.

Sirius couldn't breath. Couldn't think. He transformed back, sputtering. James' eyes widened in a panic and he leapt off of his best friend.

"What the hell?" Sirius exclaimed unhappily, but he didn't seem particularly angry with James.

He reached forward and poked James' nose. "Nice horsie," he said mockingly. James lowered his antlers menacingly but Sirius laughed it off.

"I don't know what just happened, Prongs." he said sounding almost frightened, but not quite.

A Marauder was never scared of anything. And if he was, he certainly didn't let anybody else know it. James transformed back and tilted his head.

"What are you talking about? You haven't practiced in at least a month. It's going to be a little harder when you finally do… I'm just glad you didn't get stuck." James said honestly. It would have been terrible if Sirius couldn't go back human, or back into a dog.

Sirius nodded gravely, "Well, I didn't."

Then he concentrated first on what the dog looked like then the mind of the creature. The black and white of its vision and the strange warmth of his skin under the thick fur.

He sighed deeply. He missed his form. Missed seeing James in black and white. Missed his tail. He pushed his feelings aside and tried to concentrate.

Slowly, he felt the warm tickling near his ears that spread to his feet. Although it soon ended, he kept his concentration and held onto it. Every touch of information that he had, both internal and external. He felt weight on his arms and cracked an eye open.

He felt considerably shorter and had the feeling that he was in canine form. He opened both eyes completely and looked up the long distance to James. Sirius had felt his skin grow steadily warmer, so he knew that he was not hairless, but James continued staring at him and Sirius grew uncomfortable. He wiggled his tail briefly to make sure that it was there.

James looked so serious that Sirius got more and more anxious. Finally, as a last attempt to make his friend smile, he ran after his slightly stubby tail, with the full awareness that he wouldn't be able to catch it. He ran in tight circles a few times before flopping over dizzy.

James smiled slightly, but kept his eyes on Sirius through it all, whether because his best friend was trying to get his attention or because he was concerned. Sirius squirmed under James' gaze but it was not removed. Eventually, Sirius couldn't stand the tension any longer. He turned back human quickly and glared back at his friend.

"What?" he snapped.

James shook his head violently like he was trying to forget something, and closed his eyes briefly. When he reopened them his eyes were far less concerned. "Um, nothing. Just… your fur," he said quietly.

"It was there… wasn't it?" Sirius asked nervously.

"Oh, it was there." James laughed.

"What???" Sirius moaned frantically.

"It was… blonde!" James exclaimed, sounding as if Christmas had come early.

"Huh?" Sirius asked intelligently, "But I'm not blonde,"

"No, you're not, but… Oh," James muttered with a very sudden realization. "I think you associate your hair with your family, and since you aren't exactly happy with them… your hair rejected them." He sounded like he knew what he was saying even though he didn't know how it all made sense or how it had come to him.

Sirius looked at him with disbelief, "Are you serious? –Don't answer that!" he said quickly, protecting himself from the pun that he really wasn't in the mood for. "That's the most… Blonde?" he asked again incredulously.

"Blonde," James reassured him. "It was freaky."

Sirius laughed and tried once again. He concentrated especially on the black fur. The shaggy black fur. As black as his family. He felt the tickle near his ears and looked up at James, who was smiling appreciatively at him. He took that as a sign that he was as he should be and returned to human form.

"Better?" he asked sarcastically.

"Much. You aren't the greatest golden retriever," James chuckled.

"Please. I could make anything work," Sirius said cockily.

"Anything but blonde," James agreed sarcastically.

"Now, that's not nice." Sirius pointed out, "Besides, your opinion doesn't matter. It's what Sara thinks that counts,"

James made a face, "After all that letter rubish? I'd drop her," he said cruelly.

Sirius looked shocked, "Would you just drop Lily?" he asked incredulously. James' mouth opened slightly in protest. "No, honestly. Would you?"

"Of course not, but that's different. I love her," James said convincingly. Sirius looked at the ground sheepishly. "What?" James cried loudly, "Um… Wow. That's great," He sounded like he meant it, even if he didn't.

Sirius smiled a tiny bit, "Yeah… I think so,"

"You think so?" James asked mockingly.

"Ah… yes, I think so," Sirius restated shyly. James made a sound and Sirius shot a furious glare at him.

"Come on, you should know!" James replied indignantly.

Sirius gave him a look. "It took you five years to know." he said darkly.

James looked hurt. "But I wasn't snogging her then, now was I?"

"Oh, and you are now?" they were staring at each other in mock anger, which they did quite often. Fighting, but not really. It helped them get any anger out and brought up whatever was bothering them about the other without the other taking offense.

James raised an eyebrow. "Well, no." he admitted honestly.

"There you are." Sirius said sarcastically.

"But you're supposed to have some sort of animal instincts!" James exclaimed wildly. Sirius looked at him like he was a slightly daft ten year old, then rolled his eyes.

"And you are too." he said very much like he was explaining something to that same daft ten year old.

"Still," James said defiantly, "I can't believe you don't know!"

"It's not like she's going anywhere," Sirius said wisely.

"She could easily just dump you," James pointed out

Sirius didn't look concerned. "I could get her back," he said simply.

James snorted. "Not if she doesn't want you anymore,"

Sirius rolled his eyes, "The same could happen with Liz," he said, closing the subject.

James took his cue and walked over to Birdie. He patted the little owls head absently while searching out a bit of parchment and a quill. He located his things and wrote his letter.

_Dear Sara,_

_This is your Gryffindor friend, I just thought that I would see how you are doing this summer. I also wanted to ask you to kindly say hello to your father, I sincerely hope that you have a good holiday._

_Your Gryffindor friend_

"There." James said happily. Sirius gave him a look of very deep concern and he felt compelled to explain. "I have a theory," he said.

"Hello?" Sirius begged.

"Well, her dad sort of strikes me as a control freak. He didn't let her reply properly because you're a male teenager. Oh, he also probably threw in something about her never speaking to you again." Sirius looked aghast, "But don't worry. That'll only make her like you more!" James finished happily.

Sirius grinned a tiny bit, "But send Owl. Birdie's already been there," he said wisely.

James nodded and apologized to Birdie for getting him excited. He woke Owl with a pat on his head, then tied the letter to his left foot. The owl flew out the window and James turned to Sirius.

"All right. What now?" he asked.

Sirius grinned. "What have you been doing this summer?"

"Um… sleeping." James admitted. "And practicing," he added simply to patronize his friend.

"Okay, I get it. Practicing is more important than being discovered as an unregistered Animagi," Sirius retorted sarcastically.

James looked surprised. "Never mind. You're officially free of guilt." he said grandly, "Quidditch!" he exclaimed excitedly.

Sirius' eyes lit up. "Oh, hell yes!" he said loudly.

Sirius bolted across the room and retrieved his Nimbus from his trunk. James' broom was in a cupboard by the back door. The two of them happily grabbed James' broom and wandered out the back door.

They were both fair seekers, but that really wasn't what either of them liked to do. They grabbed a rock and tossed it between the two of them, trying to make the other dive for it. Unfortunately, they both had Quidditch reflexes, so it wasn't super amusing.

On the fortunate side they were both Quidditch fanatics and they didn't care how amused anyone else would be. They loved the diving and swooping that came with going after the rock, throwing it as far as they could and going after it just as fast.

They spent every day that month that way, which neither of them minded in the slightest, then August came around.

James' birthday was in August. The first of the month more exactly, but this year would be different than all of the others.

Before he'd had extravagant parties with loads of people. This year, what with Voldemort on the loose, it would be a small family party with only his parents and Sirius as guests.

He planned to spend the majority of the day ignoring that it was his birthday at all, but his parents were very creative people and they wouldn't have much trouble reminding him.

The moment that James woke up, Sirius threw a pillow at his head and bellowed his congratulations. James grinned and crawled out of bed. He and Sirius shuffled to the kitchen and sat down.

His mother pushed a plate in front of him with a tiny stack of chocolate chip pancakes with sixteen candles stuck into it. He looked up with a tiny smile and thanked his mum. Sirius had a stack too, sans the candles.

James blew out the magical flames that lit up the tips of each tiny wax tower. His wish was that his parents would let Sirius stay next summer and would welcome him as much as they ever had.

"Okay, Jamie," his mum said excitedly, "what do you want to do today? We can do anything?"

Sirius grinned at James, "Jamie?" he hissed, both looking and sounding thoroughly elated.

James rolled his eyes. "She does that every year. I don't know. She remembers when I was tiny or something," he whispered back, then he turned to his mother and answered loudly "The only thing that I really want is for Sirius to be able to live with us,"

Mrs. Potter looked confused for a millisecond, "But… Jamie, we already said that he could,"

Sirius blinked, "Huh?" he asked

James was officially confused, "Um… what?"

Mrs. Potter sighed, "Didn't your father tell you? We decided the night he got here!" she exclaimed, "I assume that you aren't planning to go back?" Sirius gave her a sheepish smile, "Well, you're welcome here any time you want." she said motherly.

Sirius grinned. He really liked having a normal mum. "Thanks, Mrs. Potter." he said quietly. Mrs. Potter smiled back then turned on her son.

"Now, Jamie, we aren't doing anything until later tonight, when your father gets home, so you've got the whole day to do anything you like." she said happily. She loved her sons birthday at least as much as her own and always took the day off from work.

James looked like he was thinking very hard. "Well… I sort of… I know it's stupid, but we always do and… Could we go to the zoo?" he asked nervously, embarrassed by his request. Sirius wisely remained quiet. Mrs. Potter beamed and nodded cheerfully.

"Just as soon as you're done with your breakfast, dear," she said, then swept off to do something or another, and Sirius turned on James.

"Oh, Jamie. The zoo?" he asked sarcastically.

James looked sheepish. "It's been tradition since I was three. Besides, I want to see if I can talk to other stags."

Sirius' eyes lit up, "I should talk to other dogs!" he exclaimed, almost giddy with excitement. "I'll bet they're everywhere!" James grinned back, glad that Sirius was past his desire for the zoo. Sirius sprang up and headed for the backyard so that he could find a canine, but James grabbed his arm and pulled him back.

"My mum will be back in a minute. How are you going to explain everything?" he asked snappish-ly. Sirius sat back down and looked sorry.

A moment later Mrs. Potter bustled into the kitchen, carrying all three of their cloaks. She handed them out then walked back out the door into the living room. There was a grand fireplace in there that was perfect for floo travel. She stepped up to it and took the pot of floo powder off of the mantle.

She offered it first to Sirius then to James. Her real son took a pinch of the powder and threw it into the fire. He stated the address to the Magical Menagerie, then stepped inside. Immediately, he was engulfed by the tall green flames.

Mrs. Potter's almost adopted son took a pinch and nervously threw it into the fire. He glanced back at Mrs. Potter, who smiled encouragingly. He said the address that James had exclaimed, then stepped inside. Mrs. Potter followed quickly.

Sirius spun in tight circles. He honestly loved floo although it made him so dizzy that he could barely walk straight when he got out. He waited patiently for James' face to appear, and there it was. He stuck out his foot and stepped out of the green haze, landing hard and stumbling a bit but he managed not to fall.

"Hey, Prongs," he said with a lop-sided grin.

James grinned back and they both stepped farther aside to make room for Mrs. Potter. She stepped out gracefully and walked past them to the grand booth where tickets for the zoo were bought. Sirius followed, trying very hard to keep his balance, and James went after that, keeping at least one of his eyes on Sirius at all times.

They followed Mrs. Potter for the majority of the trip, then she turned them loose, saying something about not letting them have any fun.

James and Sirius found the deer portion of the zoo, and Sirius waited patiently for James to jump into the pen. He transformed quickly. Sirius kept his eyes on his best friend the whole time.

James trotted up to a stag that was slightly smaller than he was and made a strange noise.

Sirius assumed that they were speaking to each other, which was a very good thing.

Animagus wizards could speak to animals of their forms species. Good information.

James nodded to the stag then pranced back to Sirius. He crouched very low to the ground and transformed, then hopped back out of the gated area.

Sirius beamed at James. "Good news?" he asked.

"Oh, yes." James said excitedly. "Paddie, I am in. Now all we've got to do is find a dog to see if you can, too."

Sirius shot James a look, "Since you can do something I can't?" he snickered "Any other lovely little traditions that we need to fulfill?"

"Nope," James said cheerfully. Sirius grinned then the two of them walked off to find Mrs. Potter. They found her examining some weird monkey-resembling creature with pink fur that kept on growing and shrinking, one after the other.

"Mum," James said quietly, she turned around with a huge smile on her face. "Are we done?" he asked politely.

James' mom smiled and nodded, then led the two boys back to the fireplace that they had entered through and called the address of their house.

James' dad did not come home until a long time after dinner. When he finally showed up, they sat down as a family to celebrate. James received a broomstick servicing kit and a bit of chocolate, but mostly he was interested in any and all information that his father could tell him.

"Look, James." he said firmly, "I think that I can tell you. And Sirius, you should probably hear this too. I am a member of the Order of the Phoenix. That is an organization working under Dumbledore to fight the Dark Arts. Your mother's a member, too,"

James and Sirius were both shocked. How hadn't they known? "I want to join," they said simultaneously, not even surprised that they had. James' parents exchanged glances.

"No," they said at the same time.

"Why not?" the teenagers said at the same time.

James' dad took this one, "You're too young. You're not of age. Dumbledore won't even consider it."

Mrs. Potter smiled slightly, "Try again at the end of your seventh year." she said helpfully.

James nodded and spent the rest of the holiday dreaming about the day that he could join the Order of the Phoenix.

A/N- The reason that there is a deer pen in a magical zoo is because it's convenient for me. So there.

Ah, Jamie and Siri know about the Order. How long until they beg Dumbledore? I can't remember.

Review, please.

Dani


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Nothing that you recognize belongs to me. It didn't before, and it certainly doesn't now.

"Sirius!" Sara exclaimed the instant that she saw him. She ran up to him on the platform and hugged him as tightly as she could. She didn't ever want to let him go.

"Hi!" Sirius said with a huge amount of surprise. He hadn't even seen her! He was innocently standing next to the Hogwarts Express when his girlfriend came flying at him.

"Oh! I didn't hear from you all summer and I wrote but you never wrote back. I was so worried!" Sara gushed nervously.

Sirius looked down at her, with his arms still around her. "What are you talking about? I wrote to you and James did, too, but neither of us heard from you…really…" he trailed off confusedly.

Sara groaned and muttered something that sounded a little bit like "Again…" she took a deep breath and stepped back from Sirius, then heard the trains whistle.

"Come on!" she said happily (fully recovered).

The two of them stepped onto the train and made their way to the Marauders' compartment (Sirius still looked a little confused).

Remus was sitting across from James and next to Peter, who was staring vacantly at the empty space in front of him, which would normally be Sirius'. James grinned at Sirius' dazed appearance paired with Sara's presence, but tactfully didn't say anything.

"Hey, guys," Sirius greeted cheerfully.

"Hello," Remus said, carefully adding a card to an exploding snap tower.

"Hi," Peter said, finally snapping his head up and realizing that no, Sirius had not turned invisible.

"Hey Paddie." James said happily, "hi, Sara."

"Hi," Sara greeted, then she sat down next to him, in the only available seat.

"Hey!" Sirius mock-protested, "fine sighed, and sat down on Sara. She laughed and squirmed to find a comfortable place and Sirius ended up almost falling onto the trains floor.

In the end they switched positions and Sara sat on Sirius' lap.

James and Remus tried very hard not to pay attention to what was going on over there, but Peter had no problem. He rarely knew what was going on anywhere.

The train started slowly and James felt the nervous bubble of excitement that he always did. He supposed it had something to do with seeing Lily or learning new magics, or being able to wave a stick and do funny things.

"Uh… Moony, you've got to go," James said, abruptly halting their game.

"What? Oh, right," Remus said. Then he walked off to find the prefects compartment. Sirius took his place and continued for Remus, struggling slightly because Sara hadn't moved yet.

Suddenly, with a terrific boom, the whole card house exploded in a thick blue smoke that engulfed the whole compartment.

James stumbled over to the door and opened it as far as it would go. Sara got up quickly and helped him wave the smoke out the door and Sirius worked on the window.

By the time that they could breathe again, they were all wearing huge smiles. Unfortunately, Peter had run away at the sound of the noise as he was no longer in the compartment.

The remaining Gryffindors took their seats again and started babbling about whatever popped into their heads.

"Hey, when's the full moon?" Sara asked out of nowhere.

James snorted, "What reminded you of that?" he asked rudely. Sirius' first instinct was to snap back at James, but he caught himself so that he could see Sara's sarcasm again.

"The same thing that prompts most of your actions. Random stupidity," Sara said quickly, not bothering to glance up from the Quibbler magazine that she was reading.

Sirius smiled and James snickered. "Nice," he muttered appreciatively, even though it was he who'd been insulted. "Why are you reading that rubbish?" he asked exasperatedly.

"I don't say anything about the rubbish that you use…" Sara retorted calmly. "Your robes, your cauldron, your wand," she listed.

"All right! You win!" James exclaimed, not wanting to hear any more about how terrible his possessions were.

Sara grinned wickedly. "Besides, I would have thought you'd be interested in a quiz about your… ahem… love interest," she said in a way that made it obvious that she hoped to spark his interest.

Both Sirius and James' eyes snapped open with attention and both simultaneously said "Huh?"

Sara snorted. "It's a quiz. I've just been filling it out about you and your lovely Lily." she said sarcastically.

"What about me?" Sirius pouted.

"Already took it," Sara said, a tiny grin on her face, "Come see." Sirius hopped across the space between the two of them and peered into the magazine.

"Oh… We have no hope and should give up now… Huh…" Sirius muttered contentedly. He sat down next to her and looked like completely untroubled while she talked to James.

"But… hang on… What's your favorite thing about her?" Sara asked. A tiny frown began to grow on her face.

"Her eyes," James said promptly.

"And… least favorite?"

"The fact that she hates me…" James said unhappily.

"Temper then," Sara said, marking the answer. A moment later she grinned and looked up form the magazine. "You're perfect for each other. You really need to get her."

James sighed discontentedly. He'd kind of already known that. Why couldn't Lily see what that quiz saw? Sirius finally started paying attention to the conversation. Clearly, he'd just sailed through of troubled thoughts.

"I think we're as perfect as Lily and Prongs," Sirius said cordially.

Sara smiled sympathetically. "Of course we are. They don't even know they're in love. We're not that clueless."

Sirius stared at her about her hidden confession of love, but James was still caught up on Lily. Sara said that they were in love. Since when, exactly?

"What?" James asked sharply, "She hates me!"

Sara laughed, "No she doesn't. She should, but she doesn't and that freaks her out." James stared at her like she was mad and Sirius just stared at her. "What?" she asked both of them.

"Nothing," they both said at the same time.

"That is so weird…" Sara muttered. It was just odd when they said the same things at the same time. "James… she does, but you have to win her over first… Well, make her believe that it's okay to already be won over. Give her absolutely no reason to dislike you. And Sirius, what is it??"

Sirius blinked. "Um… I just… remembered a conversation that Prongs and I had this summer." he explained quickly.

He hoped that James would recognize the conversation where Sirius blurted out that he loved Sara. Based on James' expression, he had.

Sara shrugged and continued reading the magazine when Peter and Remus bounded back into the compartment.

"How was your prefect meeting?" James asked with mock interest.

Remus rolled his eyes and fell heavily into a spot next to his friend. James acted the same way the year before as well and probably would the next year. Remus' prefect meetings weren't very interesting, and James always loved to prove how much of a geek he thought it was. Sara looked mildly interested, however.

"Oh, was that today?" she asked with confusion and surprise spreading over her face.

"Um, yeah," Remus said obviously. "It was really weird though. One of the new Gryffindor prefects never showed… up… Oh." He finished quietly.

"You're a prefect?" Sirius yelped.

"So what?" Sara asked defensively.

"Um… nothing. I just… didn't guess. Didn't know, more like," Sirius said with a touch of confusion growing into a push.

"I forgot." Sara excused, "Where are the Head Boy and Girl?" she asked Remus.

Remus grinned, "Probably off in a secluded compartment somewhere." he said suggestively.

"How am I supposed to apologize if I can't find them?" Sara asked, not sounding amazingly concerned. It was as if it was a daily occurrence that she forgot about incredibly important meetings and had to deal with important people.

Sirius snorted. "Apologize?"

"I forgot." Sara said again.

Peter looked sympathetic, but James looked surprised, "How can you forget that?" he asked wildly. Sirius glared at him but was very curious on that subject himself.

"I don't know." Sara said, "I just did."

Sirius looked concerned and leaned over to mutter "We have to talk when we get to the castle," in her ear so that the others couldn't hear her.

Sara was nervous and her immediate reaction was to get away from the whole situation, but that wasn't fair. She would have to listen to whatever he had to say. She nodded nervously, then fixed her expression to one of completely innocent and unfazed at the same time.

"Where were you, Peter?" she asked.

Peter jumped. "Um…" they all waited for him to finish his sentence, but it didn't come. Sara coughed and Peter snapped back to reality. "I got lost," he said hastily.

"Whatever," Sara muttered, then turned back to her magazine, reading a not-completely interesting article on some creature that she was certain didn't exist.

"Oi, Moony… are we almost there?" Sirius asked loudly.

Remus smiled. "Not yet," he said patiently. Sara smiled to herself. These four had so many rituals and traditions and signals, it was ridiculous, but she was beginning to catch on. Sara stood abruptly and moved towards the compartment door.

Sirius looked confused, but she didn't respond to his inquiring gaze. She opened the door and set out to find the Gryffindor sixth year girls. She knew that they all generally sat together, so they weren't particularly hard to find.

Sara opened their door and asked if she could sit down. She knew the outline to what she had to do. She had an idea of the basics. She had to make them warm up to her for a bit before she had any hope of them telling her anything.

"Actually, I was wondering if any of you girls were prefects," Sara said amiably.

"I am," Lily said just as amiably.

"Well, apparently so am I." Sara said carefully, "but I missed the prefects meeting," she admitted, then sensed that Lily was just going to hate her if she said that she missed it because she didn't care.

Sara quickly pulled a self-conscious expression and babbled "I'm so embarrassed! I completely forgot! Even when Remus went to it. Oh…" she muttered, then looked down at the floor.

Lily smiled reassuringly. "That's all right," she said kindly.

Sara almost smiled. She had her just where she wanted her. A few more meetings like this one and she could bring up her 'boy troubles'. She could get Lily to admit everything about James.

"But what do I do now?" Sara asked with mock bashfulness, "I don't know where the Head Boy and Girl are, so how can I apologize?"

Lily laughed. "Don't worry about it. You can explain it all at the prefect meeting for October," she said nicely.

Sara smiled back, genuinely surprised that Lily was so nice. "Can I… say something?" she asked with real nervousness now. Lily nodded and she continued. "I was always sort of afraid of you," she admitted.

Lily laughed, "Why?" she asked. She didn't sound like it exactly bothered her, but she was curious.

"Well, I saw you running after James, and you really did some damage a few times, and… I don't know, I always figured you would hex me if I talked to you," she said bashfully.

Lily laughed, "Of course not! I only hex James, and that's only because he shoots first… he's kind of a… special case,"

Sara smiled, so this was who Lily was… She made a mental note that she called James 'James' not 'Potter' when he wasn't around, and that she thought he was special. "Well, thanks a lot," she said, then got up to leave.

"Wait, Sara," Lily said, "Where are you sitting?" she asked.

Sara smiled apologetically. "With the Marauders," she admitted.

Lily made a face, then one of comprehension took over. "And you're going to go tell them everything that you just heard." She said coldly.

Sara immediately spat out "No! Why would I? I'm only there for Sirius," then she considered her options.

She actually did have the intention to go tell James everything that Lily said about him, but she changed her mind when she saw the relieved expression that fell into place in Lily. She closed the door behind her a moment later and set off to go back to the Marauders compartment.

She settled in next to Sirius and the boys all stared at her until she gave them one of her many glares of death and they looked away.

She found that Remus was reading her Quibbler with a slightly disgusted expression on his face. Sara glanced over at Sirius but the instant that she saw his furious expression she looked away, at the floor.

This was so weird. She was never afraid of angry people. She always talked back and mouthed off however much she wanted, but with him it was different. She cared what he thought of her and she didn't want to mouth off to him as much as she did everybody else.

That was no excuse for complete lack of snapping though. Her sarcasm was still apparent, just severely lessened.

Sara moved away from him slightly. She was almost afraid of what would happen if he was angry and she kept pushing.

James was looking at the wall above Sirius and was concentrating hard enough that either the wall had insulted his mother or he was trying to light it on fire with his will power. Remus looked slightly helpless and Peter just looked stupid.

She was sort of alone in this compartment. If Sirius was angry, nobody was going to help her, although it appeared that nobody was going to help anybody else either.

She got up again and went back to Lilys compartment under the extremely false pretenses that the Marauders bored her. She had the idea that Lily didn't believe this cover story, but thankfully she didn't inquire further, and Sara was free to 'listen' to the girls conversation while really dreaming about what on earth she and Sirius had to talk about.

They stepped off the train a bit after it stopped in Hogsmead and made their way up to the castle. Sara stayed with the older girls to avoid Sirius' vengeful gaze for as long as possible. She entered the school and sat down at Gryffindor table with the same group and enjoyed the feast much less than she had expected to.

After Dumbledores opening words at the end of the feast, Sara walked slowly to the Common Room by herself. She passed a lot of students that bothered her. What right did they have to be happy while she was in this irritated mood? She reached the Fat Lady and realized that she didn't know the password.

"Um… is there any chance you can let me in anyway?" Sara asked her uncertainly.

The Lady laughed. "No," she said almost sympathetically, "But shouldn't you know the password?" she asked, looking at the gold prefects badge that Sara had pinned to her school robes.

"I missed the meeting," Sara said shortly, then turned away to get in through the secret room.

She walked a bit to the right of the portrait and tapped the wall with her wand. It opened at her touch and she walked in nervously. She didn't want to see Sirius, but that was the only room that she knew she could find.

"Excuse me?" she called to the paintings. Immediately all painted eyes were on her. "Do any of you have rooms that I can spend the night in?" she asked.

Almost all of the portraits nodded peacefully.

"Um…" Sara stammered, she didn't know how to narrow down her search. "Where there isn't anybody else?"

There was only one of those. Sara walked up to it and asked for entrance.

The door politely asked for the password that Sara didn't know. "Please?" she asked quietly. The lady in the portrait smiled and swung open.

"For future reference, it is Fairy Twinkle." the kind lady said.

Sara nodded and entered the room. It was fairly large, with a dark purple couch off on the left wall. A bit farther into the room was a large red canopy bed. Sara fell into it sleepily. She was asleep in moments, and had a strange dream where people kept calling her Tori.

Sara woke up not too much later. The small window proved that it was still dark outside. She walked around the room. There had to be something special about this place. There was something cool about every room in the castle.

"Hello?" she called uncertainly.

**Hello, dear**

There was writing on the wall by the door. Sara ran over to it and stared expectantly.

**Well, aren't you going to say anything?**

More writing demanded a moment later, in reaction to her dazed silence. Sara blinked.

"Sorry," she said, "I'm… not used to talking to walls," she asked rudely.

**Who are you? **

The wall asked.

"Um… I'm Sara. Hello," Sara said uncomfortably. What were you supposed to say to a wall?

**We've been through that already. What is your full name, dear?**

Sara sighed, "Sara Victoria Bulargo," she replied unhappily.

**You do not like it?**

"No,"

**why not? It is a beautiful name**

"I'm sure it is, but I just… it's mostly my middle name. It was my mother's first name."

**You do not think it fits you**

"Well, no. But I had a dream last night where everyone started calling me Tori."

**Did you like that?**

"Strangely, yes," Sara said, snapping out of her daze. She was talking to a wall.

**Then perhaps you should go by that. Now, tell me about your life.**

"Well… I'm a fifth year… I'm fifteen. I have two brothers and two sisters… I'm a Muggle born…I think I have a boyfriend, but I'm not really sure…" Sara paused at that last one, what was Sirius going to say last night?

**By what name?**

"Sirius Black,"

**You think? **

"Yes. He was really mad yesterday, on the train, and I couldn't figure it out." Sara hesitated, "I think he was mad at me."

**About what?**

"I can't figure it out. I don't think I did anything… It just reminds me of a muggle I dated once, he would go weeks being perfectly affectionate, then in an instant he would stop talking to me. A few weeks later he would be fine and act like nothing happened," Sara said unhappily.

It was a lot like that. Even though she didn't want to, if Sirius was going to start acting like that, she would dump him immediately. She shouldn't have to deal with that.

"Do you know what time it is?" she asked, suddenly aware of the classes that she had sometime that day.

**Approximately 5:30, you do not have classes for three hours.**

"Hmm…" Sara mused…

**Why are you not in your dormitory?**

"I don't know the password," Sara said lamely.

**Why not?**

"Well, I'm a prefect, but I forgot and missed the meeting." Sara said with minor embarrassment, "Actually, that might be why Sirius is mad at me,"

**You regret being chosen**

"Um… yes." Sara said uncomfortably, "I know it's stupid, but I do."

**Tell me more about yourself**

"Sorry, but how are you talking to me?" Sara asked, remembering that it was stupid to speak to inanimate objects.

**I am writing, not talking. And because I was charmed to.**

"By who?"

**Godric Gryffindor, if you must know. But that is incredibly irrelevant. I am very curious. I haven't spoken to anyone in thirty years.**

"Wow, that's a long time." Sara said stupidly, "Well… I do alright in school, but recently I've dropped a little grades-wise… my dad had a field day. There were all sorts of punishments about that…"

**You do not like your father?**

"No. I absolutely hate him, actually. He's a terrible dad, if you can even call him that. He only exists to make my life miserable," Sara complained honestly.

**It cannot be that terrible**

"It is to me. He yells about everything and threatens to do terrible things to us." Sara complained.

**Like what?**

"I don't know. He told me he would shoot me if I didn't clean the kitchen. He told my brother he would carve his heart out and feed it to him if he didn't stop talking…" Sara said unhappily.

She didn't want to tell the wall her hugest problem with her dad. The reason that her mom wasn't around anymore. The reason that Sara hated her middle name. The reason that she feared it. Her dad had killed her mom.

**That is not a father.**

"I know." said Sara miserably.

**When you are at school, he cannot speak to you**

"I get really stupid letters, though. I'm glad he doesn't know how to send a howler or the whole school would know. He just assumes that I'm doing something wrong. He keeps his letters really plain so that he accuses me of things, but doesn't say what they are." Sara admitted.

**That way that you cannot tell him that you did not do it.**

"Exactly."

**Tori, find Sirius. You need someone.**

"I have you, don't I?" Sara asked nervously.

**Of course, but you need someone human. I am a wall. By the way, my name is Kit**

"That's a good idea. Thank you, Kit,"

**Goodbye, Tori**

Sara thought about it and she really didn't mind being called Tori. It was like a tribute to her mom.

She started towards the door and it opened wide so that she could exit. She crossed the room and found the painting that led to the boys dormitory. She tapped the portrait with her wand and stepped inside the narrow entry that appeared as the painting opened.

Sara followed the path that ended in a grate. She peeked in and when she realized that she couldn't see anything when it was so dark. She tapped the wall with her wand, and it swung open.

Sirius stirred lightly in his bed as it moved, and again when it shifted back, but he stayed deep in his slumber. Sara sat down on his bed and leaned over his face. "Sirius," she whispered, not wanting to wake the other boys.

Sirius' eyes snapped open and he sat up in alarm, pushing Sara back. "Sara?" he asked quietly.

"Hi," Sara said lamely. Sirius moved over to make room for her and Sara slipped under the covers. She fell asleep to Sirius' steady breathing and warm embrace.

Sirius was completely bewildered. Why was Sara here? He was so freaked out that she was a prefect and he felt like she wasn't telling him something.

More than anything he was angry with her dad. He saw a large bruise on her arm, back on the train. He just knew that it had something to do with him. He couldn't sleep. He stared over her head at the bed hangings in front of him.

James woke up sleepily two hours later, and threw a pillow in Remus' direction. The boy grunted and burrowed deeper into his blankets.

Remus was a very light sleeper, which was fortunate for him considering the boys he shared a room with. James laughed to himself and stood up. He stretched briefly before walking over to Peters bed.

He shook the boy, then walked to Sirius' bed. This was usually the most fun, as the incredibly deep sleeper required all sorts of interesting methods of waking.

James pulled out his wand and prepared to send water spraying at his best friend, but as he pulled back the curtains on Sirius' bed he nearly dropped his wand completely.

It could have been that Sirius was staring at him or it could have been that Sara was in his arms, but James was amazingly startled. He raised an eyebrow at Sirius who smirked back. Sirius moved slightly and in less than an instant she was awake. She bolted up and winced.

"Sara?" Sirius asked quietly. His rage at her father welled up inside him. She turned to him and smiled slightly. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing," Sara said incredulously, then she laughed self-consciously and stood up, but Sirius saw her grimace as she did.

He shot James a look that clearly said that he was ticked off and not to mess with him. James went back across the room and re-woke the other two boys.

Sara went into their bathroom and emerged a few minutes later looking much better and happier. "Breakfast?" she asked hopefully. She hadn't eaten much the night before. She was too nervous about Sirius, who was right now looking at the floor like he was going to be sick.

"You okay?" Sara asked with a great amount of amusement.

Sirius shook his head slowly, and shuffled to the bathroom. Sara looked over at James who was looking at her with concern. He had seen her wince too.

"What happened?" James asked quietly.

"What are you talking about?" Sara asked, trying very hard to make him look like he was the mistaken one.

"What happened?" James repeated incredulously. "Have you seen yourself?"

"Okay, ouch," Sara said, pulling a hurt face. James stared at her and she got a littler nervous. Sirius returned and sat down next to her and took her hand gently.

"We only have an hour before classes, so let's just forget this until after, okay?" he asked carefully. Sara nodded but was very confused.

Sirius smiled and strode to Remus' bed. He grabbed the pillow from under him and when he still wouldn't stand up, Sirius transformed into a dog and leapt onto the poor sleeping boy. Remus grunted and squirmed, but didn't surface from his covers. Sirius kept on jumping until a messy mop of dirty blonde hair emerged.

"Yes?" Remus asked meekly.

Sirius transformed back. "Get up," he ordered one last time, then he hopped off and turned menacingly towards Peter.

"Okay, okay," Peter said testily, then stood and entered the bathroom.

Remus went in after him and after Sara pointed her wand at herself to change her clothes and fix her hair, they all walked down to the Great Hall via the Portrait Room. Sara discreetly waved to Kit on their way past her, and she smiled at Sara like she had recently been let in on a secret.

After they ate they had to go their own ways, because Sara was a fifth year. She didn't even think about Sirius until she saw him at dinner.

The whole day was full of discreet warnings about how she was going to fail her OWLs unless she improved incredibly.

The only thing that made the day half-bearable was that her best friend, Matt was there. He always made her life easier.

At dinner time, Sara slid into the bench next to Sirius and said hello before piling her plate. She hadn't bothered with lunch because she was freaking out about her OWL exams, so she hadn't eaten since breakfast.

Sirius watched in amusement at his girlfriend who was eating as much as he did on a regular basis, but remembered what he needed to talk to her about. He had been thinking about it all day and still had no idea what he was going to say to her.

James, Remus and Peter excused themselves so that Sirius could try to speak with Sara. Sara brought him to the portrait room and they talked there, in front of all of them since she wasn't sure if she wanted to tell him about Kit. Especially not if they were about to break up.

"Sara, you haven't told me anything about your family or even your life before Hogwarts. Why?" Sirius asked, he felt sort of whiney and he didn't like it, but at the same time he really had to know.

It was driving him crazy that something could be going on. Something was making her unhappy, and he couldn't do anything to make it better.

"Because I don't like to think about it." Sara admitted, surprising herself by doing so.

Sirius was surprised, too. She hadn't ever really said anything. It was all assumption on his part.

"Why not?" he blurted out.

Sara sighed and pulled a face. "You don't tell me anything about your life, either. I figured that was just what we did."

"Yes, I did. I must have," Sirius protested wildly. He couldn't imagine knowing Sara as well as he did and never having mentioned anything about himself.

"You've implied, but you've never actually said. Tell me," Sara said, cleverly turning the subject towards him.

Comprehension dawned on Sirius. "No fair," he pouted.

"look, it's not a happy family and I like to pretend I'm not a part of it until I have to be." Sara said darkly.

Sirius sighed. He hated this about her, but he loved it so much, too. If she didn't want to do something, she certainly wasn't about to do it for your benefit.

"But I do, too." Sirius said sincerely, "I hate my family, and I can't decide if you do yours."

Sara's expression changed half a dozen times, pride at first that her assumption about him was right, annoyance that he was still pushing it, exasperation at his teenager-ish 'I hate's, irritation that he thought he could decide anything about her but above it all was something that she couldn't get past.

It was fear.

She chose a reaction that could take the subject off of her, if she asked the question correctly. "Why do you hate them?" she asked.

Sirius gave her a look. "Fine. I'll go first. They're major Dark Arts junkies and they're super pissed that I'm not." Sara continued her expectant expression and he hastily added "And my brother buys into it,"

"Oh," Sara said quietly. Honestly, she had been expecting something more terrible. "Okay… Why does that bother you so much?"

he looked surprised, "I've been disowned for being a Gryffindor." he tried to explain, "You've heard of Voldemort,"

Sara didn't flinch and even though he was irritated, Sirius was proud of her. What he didn't know was how intertwined Voldemort was with her father. He didn't know her disgust.

"Of course." she spat.

"Well, my parents sort of worship him. Every generation of Blacks has been evil for so long. That makes it sort of hard for them to understand that I'm not. They should be used to it, though. My cousin married a muggle and my uncle is like me." Sirius elaborated.

"Huh…" Sara commented, "Sucks." Sirius grinned.

"Your turn."

Sara looked confused, she was contemplating exactly what she could and could not tell him. "I sort of…don't like my family. My siblings are all fine. There aren't any problems there. It's just… my dad." Sirius was eager to hear exactly what her dad did.

"He's got a temper like mine, but he doesn't even try to contain it. He lets it all go whenever he feels like it just because he feels like it."

"Why?" Sirius prompted when she paused.

"I don't know." Sara snapped irritably, "Ask him yourself!" Sirius' face fell at her harsh words. "Sorry. Guess I'm not doing a very good job containing my temper, either."

"No, it's all right." Sirius said encouragingly, "Go on."

Sara looked uncertain. "Well… When dads temper goes everywhere, nobody does anything to stop him. They let him-" Sara caught herself. Always be careful what you tell people. Even if you think that you trust them.

"What?" Sirius asked curiously.

"Let the girl go," a painting that Sara recognized to be Kit said kindly. Sara smiled at her and Kit nodded cordially.

"Sorry," Sirius said to Sara, "I just…" he trailed off. He felt terrible. What had started out as an innocent question had exploded into wildfires of curiosity.

"it's okay," Sara said kindly. She could understand uncultivated curiosity as well as anybody else.

Sirius nodded and led her to the painting that went into his dormitory, Sara noticed an almost motherly expression spread out over Kit as she followed him.

They entered the dormitory quietly and noticed that only Peter was missing. Both James and Remus immediately noticed their entwined hands and sighed simultaneously.

They both had such short tempers, but they knew that they were in love and couldn't stay mad for very long. James took their affection as a sign that Sirius had his questions answered, but he still thought that there was something that Sara was hiding.

Sirius flopped onto his bed and Sara followed him. She saw James' scrutinizing glare and found that she didn't particularly care. It simply wasn't in her nature to give much of a crap about what people thought.

She looked towards Sirius, who was blinking at Remus. She was beginning to hate it when they did that. Why did they have to be so in tune with one another? They could speak without noise. They had so many signals and traditions and yes, Sara felt terribly out of place.

"I guess I'm leaving then. Bye," Sara said to the room in general, then she swept out of the room through the wall behind Sirius' bed.

"Okay," James said, "I missed it. I caught Remus' signal, but I missed the answer. Are you okay?" Sirius smirked then winked his left eye and blinked once, their indication for yes.

Remus frowned, "I think Sara's getting sick of that." he commented quietly.

Sirius stared at him incredulously, "What are you talking about? How could she?"

James rolled his eyes, but remained silent and allowed Remus to take care of the Q and A that was no doubt coming up.

"Because she doesn't know what anything means." Remus explained.

"Well, she would. But _someone_ didn't want her to be a Marauder." Sirius commented darkly.

Remus sighed, praying that Sirius would freak out again. "And she shouldn't. The less people who know the better."

"Who know what? About us? Everyone knows we're Marauders. We sign it on our pranks," Sirius said incredulously.

"_Some _of them," Remus corrected, "And we don't _tell_ anybody. It's signed on the Map with our nicknames for a reason. People aren't supposed to know."

James butted in here, "But we all _use_ those nicknames. It wouldn't be too hard for someone to figure it out."

Remus glared at him, James definitely wasn't making the Sirius-thing any easier than he had to. "Then we should stop using our nicknames if they're going to lead to us being found."

Sirius and James stared at him and simultaneously muttered "Huh?"

"If somebody heard one of you call me Moony, they'd know I'm a werewolf. If someone heard you call Sirius 'Padfoot' they'd know he's an Animagus." He said sadly. He was really getting tired of having to play the calm, peace-keeping friend.

"I don't care," Sirius spat, "I don't want to have to stop calling James 'Prongs' just because somebody _could_ figure out that he's a stag. It's stupid. I shouldn't have to. Besides, who would bother thinking about it that much… Snivellus?"

James snorted. "Yeah. I don't care if people figure it out. I'm a Marauder, dammit. What's the worst that could happen? People would know for sure that it's us. And who cares? I wouldn't mind getting some praise for our pranks. They're bloody brilliant!"

Sirius nodded firmly, "I agree. You're Moony. You always will be, whether you like it or not." Remus made a strangled noise and James glared at Sirius. "No. I didn't…" Sirius attempted to remedy. He had accidentally implied that there would never be a cure for werewolf bites.

"That's fine." Remus said quietly, "I know there's no cure."

James sighed. "Look. We're Marauders. Since when do we think things through?"

Sirius nodded, "Sara knew before I told her… I don't think I ever actually explained it." Remus and James both rolled their eyes. "What? She's a smart witch. She can figure it out for herself!"

"She shouldn't have to." James said quietly, "You don't tell her much, do you?"

"Yes I do! It's _her_ who won't talk to _me_!" Sirius exclaimed, alarmed that now he was on trial.

Remus snorted, "Right. Have you told her that you're related to James? Or what your parents do? About Andromeda? Alphard? Grimauld Place?"

"Well, no." Sirius admitted.

"Exactly." Remus said firmly.

Sirius looked hurt. "But she won't tell me about her dad."

"Oh. What about him?" James asked with mild curiosity. He had heard a few… interesting theories so far, ranging from aliens to Muggles, and he was interested to see which was correct.

"Absolutely nothing." Sirius said darkly, "I know he's mean but I don't know why or what he does. Some stupid painting bit my head off before I could ask." James snorted. "And then I felt so bad for even wanting to ask that I just let it go."

Back in the 'stupid painting' room, Sara was talking to Kit.

"Yeah, and then he started doing that stupid Marauder code garbage, so I left." she said darkly.

**Marauder?**

"Yeah, it's sort of his club. It's James Potter, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew and Sirius. I only just figured out that they're Animagi."

**Really?**

"I know!" Sara exclaimed incredulously.

**What are they?**

"Sirius is a dog, James is a stag and Peter's a rat." she said, smiling to herself at Peters misfortune.

**And Remus?**

"Oh… he's a werewolf," Sara admitted.

**Wow**

"I know… he should meet my dad." Sara said darkly.

**That is not nice. You should not wish that curse onto any man.**

Sara squirmed uncomfortably, "And if somebody else already has?" she asked carefully.

**Your father is a werewolf?**

Just by looking at Kits writing, Sara could tell that she was surprised. "Yes." Sara said boldly.

She had only ever told one person, (Matt) and she had always been afraid of what her dad would do to her if he found out that she did.

Kit didn't write anything for a few minutes, and when she finally did, it appeared that she knew that Sara would want the subject to change quickly.

**Why did you go into Mr. Blacks dormitory?**

Sara snorted. "Nothing like that. He wanted to talk to his friends. I don't know why he wanted me there. I just got so fed up with that damn code."

**Language**

"Sorry?" Sara asked sarcastically. She wasn't exactly in the practice of watching her mouth for paintings.

**You should be. Go to your dormitory. You should find your friends. You have been busy with Sirius all day.**

"Actually, now that I'm a fifth year, I've been busy being scared of the O.W.L.s more than anything." Sara admitted.

**Goodbye, Tori**

"Bye, Kit." Sara said, then she walked back out to the painting room and stood still for a moment. She still didn't know the password. That was stupid of her.

She walked over to that weird portrait of a cow and a horse and tapped it with her wand. She walked down the creepy dark hall and found the wall at the end of it. She paused at the grate to see if anybody was still awake but didn't hear anybody.

_Bloody code. _She thought miserably to herself before tapping the wall with her wand.

Sirius started when his bed moved, and tried to look around the wall at who was there. Sara emerged, but didn't even look at him. She crossed the room to Remus' bed and reached out a hand to shake him awake. Sirius glared.

What the hell did she have to be mad at him about?

"Remus, I need the password for the Common Room." Sara said quietly, feeling a tinge of a blush creep up to her cheeks. Remus grunted, but stayed asleep.

Sara stared at him helplessly. Then she remembered how Sirius usually woke him up and transformed into a dog. She pounced on the boy and jumped until his eyes creaked open.

"What do you want, Padfoot?" Remus asked irritably, all that he could see was a large blob that was standing on him.

Sara transformed back and smirked, "The password." she said simply.

"Just go downstairs!" Remus snapped, then shoved the blob off of his bed and yanked his head back under his blankets.

"Ouch," Sara said, pulling herself off the floor and back to his bed. Remus poked his head out again.

"Padfoot?" he asked, sounding almost frightened.

"Yeah?" Sirius called from across the room.

Remus sighed, "Well, now I'm awake."

Sara laughed quietly and Sirius realized that she was still sitting on Remus' bed. "Just use the stairs. And get off of Remus, would you?" Sara crossed the room to his bed and sat down next to Sirius.

"Well, goodnight to you too," then she kissed him and went out the regular, un-hidden door to the Common Room.

Sirius glanced at Remus before ignoring his irritation at being woken up and going back to sleep.

Sara crossed the dark room, disregarding the unwavering stare that she received from the one person that was still awake, then climbed the stairs to the fifth year girls dormitory. She entered quietly and climbed into bed before realizing that Liz was awake.

"Hi," she said happily.

"Where were you?" Liz asked critically.

Sara didn't generally respond well to accusations, and she didn't now.

"I'm here now." she snapped.

"But you weren't five seconds ago. Sara, it's almost midnight." Liz said tiredly.

"So what?" Sara retorted.

Liz flopped her head back onto her pillows and called "Next time you're shagging Sirius at midnight, send my regards." Sara rolled her eyes and buried her head in her pillow.

She was asleep instantly, and moments later, light was streaming in the window. She glanced at the clock before getting out of bed. She had half an hour to get to her first lesson. She rolled her eyes and found a clean set of school robes in her trunk. She didn't really care about missing breakfast, it just irritated her how immature girls could be. Turning off her alarm. How rude.

Sara didn't bother hurrying to class. She took a few shortcuts and arrived in front of the Transfiguration door on time if not a little early. She slid into a seat and was soon joined by her best friend, Matt.

"Hey, Mattie," she said, giving him a shove on his shoulder before trying desperately to pay attention to Minnie.

She had heard Dumbledore call the Transfiguration professor that name the year before near the end of term and she hadn't been able to use in conversation because she rarely talked about the school portion of Hogwarts.

"Hey, Tori," Matt replied quietly. Sara smiled, she swore this kid was psychic.

The instant that the lesson was over, Sara pulled Matt over to a corner and whispered, "Meet me by the Common Room at lunch. You think you'll survive without it?"

Matt nodded, "See you then." then he walked off for Divination and she walked off for Muggle Studies.

A/N- There you are. A nice, long chapter.

Five cookies to the first person who guesses who Sara's dad is!

Yes, Sara's family are Muggles, but they know a decent amount about magic, and the war because her dad is a werewolf. Somebody had to explain to him how illegal that was, and that person would be a Ministry official.

One more thing: Kit is going to turn into a sort of mother for Sara, so…Try not to hate it when she's a little disapproving. After all, Sara _was _in the boys dormitory in the middle of the night.

Tell me what you think!

Dani


End file.
